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Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  MIcrorepro Auctions 


Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


1980 


Teciinical  Notes  /  Notes  techniques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Physical 
features  of  this  copy  which  may  alter  any  uf  the 
images  in  the  reproduction  are  checked  below. 


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Couvertures  de  couleur 


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Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  ddcolordes,  tachet6es  ou  piqu6es 


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distortion  along  interior  margin)/ 
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qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Cert&ins 
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The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
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Les  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  netteti  de  I'exemplaire  IWrni,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage.  :■; 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche  shall 
contain  the  symbol  —^(meaning  CONTINUED"), 
or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"),  whichever 
applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  appar^iftrn  sur  la  der- 
nidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  telon  le  cas: 
le  symbols  — ►  signifie  "A  SUIVRE'    le  symbols 
V  signifie  "FIN". 


The  original  copy  was  borrowed  from,  and 
filmed  with,  the  kind  consent  of  the  following 
institution: 

Library  of  the  Public 

Archives  of  Canada 

Maps  or  plates  too  large  to  be  entirely  included 
in  one  exposure  are  filmed  beginning  in  the 
upper  left  hand  corn«fr,  left  to  right  and  top  to 
bottom,  as  many  frames  as  required.  The 
following  diagrams  illustrate  the  method: 


L'exemplaire  filmi  fut  reproduit  grAce  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de  I'dtablissement  prdteur 
suivant  : 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 

publiques  du  Canada 

Les  cartes  ou  les  planches  trop  grandes  pour  dtre 
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droite  et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Le  diagramme  suivant 
illustre  la  m6thode  : 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

Number  100 


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SCJe  UitoersiiJe  lliterature  Series 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES 

THE  SPEECH  BY  EDMUND  BURKE 


EDITED  BY 

ROBERT   ANDERSEN 

UASTBR  OV  BNOLUH  IM  THB  EPISCOPAL   ACADBMT,   PHILADHlPHJi 


BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANl 


/ 

to 


I?? 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  00 

All  rights  reserved. 


B:^¥.z;> 


PREFACE. 

The  importance  attaching  to  the  study  of  the  Speech  on 
Conciliation  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  Committee 
have  assigned  it  for  study  in  the  years  1897-1908. 

In  this  edition,  the  editor,  in  addition  to  preparing  the 
notes  explanatory  of  the  text,  has  aimed  at  exhibiting  its 
logical  form  and  structure.  Such  a  plan  of  editing  and 
of  study  gives  an  excellent  opportunity  of  impressing,  by 
the  force  of  Burke's  example,  some  of  the  fundamental 
processes  of  composition  —  and  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  most  persistent  demand  which  the  colleges  are  at 
present  making  of  the  teacher  of  English  is  the  demand  fo/ 
skill  in  this  art  —  for  "  clearness  and  accuracy  of  expres. 
sion."  The  Speech  is  valuable  as  a  model :  it  is  commonly 
accepted  as  a  masterpiece:  it  is  constructed  on  such  a 
definite,  orderly  plan ;  its  various  parts  are  so  nicely  articu- 
lated; it  is,  indeed,  such  a  finely  developed  organism, — 
that  the  study  of  its  details  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  pupil 
with  the  importance  of  the  rhetorical  principles  upon  which 
it  is  constructed.  What  claimed  Burke's  attention  in  the 
construction  of  his  work  will  impress  the  pupil  in  the  con- 
struction of  his  own. 

The  method  of  study  proposed  is  indicated  or  pages  ix- 
xiv  —  i.  e.,  in  the  careful  reading  of  groups  of  paragraphs 
as  they  express  successive  units  of  thought ;  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  skeleton  analysis ;  in  the  study  of  appropriate 
rhetorical  notes,  together  with  such  of  the  exercises  as  the 
teacher  finds  time  for.  The  teacher  will  see  on  examina- 
tion that  some  of  the  work  appointed  m  xy  be  omitted ;  but, 
according  to  the  idea  and  purpose  of  the  editor,  the  con- 
struction of  the  skeleton  outline  is  an  essential.     It  is  not 


iv  PREFACE. 

sufficient  for  the  pupil  to  attempt  to  follow- the  outline 
mentally,  without  writing  it  out.  To  do  that  much  is,  so 
far,  good ;  but  to  construct  it  in  detail,  preserving  the  rela- 
tive rank  of  the  thought  in  the  manner  indicated,  will  force 
the  pupil,  as  he  sees  it  growing  under  his  hand,  to  appre- 
hend the  truth  that  this  great  literary  work  is  wrought  out 
in  accordance  with  steady,  consistent  purpose,  with  definite 
plan  and  method,  —  a  truth  that  will  appear  more  clearly  in 
the  carefully  constructed  analysis  than  it  cart  possibly  ap- 
pear from  a  mere  reading  of  the  Speech,  however  careful. 
Let  the  pupil  apprehend  that  truth  and  he  will  have  made 
a  great,  practical  gain.  Purpose,  plan,  method,  are  the 
foundations  of  all  goo('  composition. 

With  the  reading  of  the  Speech,  and  the  construction  of 
the  analysis,  there  should  go  as  much  synthetic  work  — 
composition  —  as  possible.  The  study  of  Burke's  theme  ; 
of  his  paragraph  structure ;  of  his  outline,  or  plan,  wiU 
naturally  suggest  that  the  pupil  be  given  practice  in  finding 
definite  themes  under  general  subjects ;  in  writing  j  ira- 
graphs  upon  narrowly  limited  themes  ;  in  making  skeleton 
outlines  of  compositions  on  these  themes.  The  importance 
of  this  work  cannot  be  overrated :  it  is  in  the  highest  de- 
gree formative :  to  require  it  of  the  pupil  is  to  help  him  to 
value  and  attain  the  power  of  direct  and  definite  thought. 
Help  in  this  work  is  given  occasionally  at  the  foot  of  the 
page,  where,  under  the  general  term  Exercise,  the  editor  has 
grouped  a  variety  of  suggestions,  which  may,  according  to 
the  teacher's  opportunity,  prove  valuable.  It  is  well  to 
have  the  exercises,  as  far  as  possible,  written,  so  as  to  guard 
against  the  looseness  that  sometimes  occurs  in  oral  recita- 
tions. Such  constructive  work  may,  of  course,  take  the 
place  of  the  ordinary  class  compositions.  The  exercises 
are  intended  to  be  suggestive  only :  the  teacher  who  is  in 
sympathy  with  the  purpose  of  the  present  study  may  make 
his  own  exercises. 

The  Episcopal  Academy,  Philadelphia,  June  12,  1896. 


EDMUND  BURKE. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

Edmxjnd  Burke  was  born  in  Dublin,  probably  in  Jan 
uary,  1729,  although  the  precise  date  is  in  question.     At 
fifteen  he  entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  where  he  re- 
mained five  years,  and  in  1750  went  to  London  to  study 
law,  —  the  profession  for  which  his  father,  an  attorney,  had 
destined  him.     Finding  the  law  dry  and  irksome,  he  aban- 
doned its  pursuit,  and  was  compelled,  by  the  withdrawal 
of  his  father's  allowance,  to  devote  himself  to  literature 
and  politics.     His  two  works,  "  A  Vindication  of  Natural 
Society  "  and  "  A  Philosophical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of 
our  Ideas  on  the  Sublime  and  Beautiful,"  soon  gained  him 
marked  distinction  as  a  writer.     In  1765  he  was  elected  to 
Parliament,  holding  his  seat  throughout  the  exciting  and 
critical  times  that  culminated  in  the  American  Revolution 
and   the    recognition   of    American   independence.     From 
1765  till  1794,  when  he  retired  from  Parliament,  his  ex- 
traordinary genius  and  political  wisdom  made  him  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  of  the  able  men  with  whom  he  was 
associated.     He  died  at  Beaconsfield,  England,  July  9, 1797. 

His  appointment  as  private  secretary  to  Lord  Rock- 
ingham, and  his  election  to  Parliament  a  few  months 
after,  brought  him  into  immediate  touch  with  the  mightiest 
problems  of  the  day.  He  became  the  active  opponent  of 
the  king's  policy,  which  was  to  concentrate  all  power  in 
the  king's  hands ;  the  ministers  were  to  be  nominees  of  the 
court,  carrying  out  his  plans  and  answerable  to  him  alone. 
Backed  up  by  Parliament,  the  king  had  determined  to 
force  America  into  submission.  They  contended,  inasmuch 
as  English  law  was  supreme  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  in 


n  EDMUND  BUHKE.  • 

England  itself,  that  Parliament  had  a  rif/ht  to  tax  America. 
Estahlishing  themselves  in  the  notion  of  their  right,  they 
proceeded  to  enforce  tlie  right  by  the  Stamp  Act  and  other 
acts  of  taxation,  regardless  of  the  claims  and  petitions  of 
the  colonies.  America  could  be  kept  in. subjection  only  by 
the  employment  of  an  army.  To  silence  the  demand  for 
constitutional  rights  by  the  employment  of  the  military  was, 
in  Burke's  judgment,  a  most  serious  menace  to  the  cause  of 
liberty  in  England  itself.  Since  the  struggle  between  Amer- 
ica and  Parliament  was  on  a  demand  for  a  constitutional 
right,  the  victory  of  the  army  over  the  Americans  miglit  in 
the  end  be  the  downfall  of  liberty  in  England  itself.  To 
him  this  was  i  real  fear:  the  idea  runs  through  several 
of  his  speeches  and  writings.  His  efforts,  however,  were 
unavailing,  —  king  and  Parliament  persisted.  Fortunately 
for  JCngland,  the  colonies  were  successful,  and  the  royal 
policy  of  coercing  the  people  in  their  demand  for  a  consti- 
tutional right  received  its  death-blow. 

Shortly  after  the  conclusion  of  the  American  Revolution, 
I  Burke  was  stirred  up  by  what  he  believed  to  be  the  cruel 

and  unjust  policy  of  Warren  Hastinrjs  in  India,  and  by  the 
fact  that  he  believed  the  East  India  Company  to  be  exert- 
ing a  corrupt  influence  among  members  of  Parliament. 
Acting  upon  this  belief,  he  made  probably  the  most  strenu- 
ous effort  of  his  life,  —  the  impeachment  of  Hastings.  Dur- 
ing the  proo  codings  —  which  lasted  for  fourteen  years  — 
Burke  labored  incessantly.  At  the  end  of  this  period 
Hastings  was  acquitted,  the  question  of  his  guilt  being 
viewed  in  different  lights.  The  probability  is  that  the  pol- 
icy of  the  East  India  Company  was  blamable  for  much 
that  was  charged  upon  Hastings.  "Never,"  says  Lord 
John  Russell,  "ha  he  great  object  of  punishment  —  the 
prevention  of  crime  —  been  attained  more  completely  than 
by  this  trial.  Hastings  was  acquitted,  but  tyranny,  deceit, 
and  injustice  were  condemned."  To  Burke  more  than  to 
any  other  belongs  the  credit  of  this  achievement. 

His  views  on  the  French  Revolution  have  brought  against 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  vii 

him  the  charge  of  inconsistency.  As  was  said,  he  had 
been  the  boldest,  tlie  most  generous  advocate  of  liberty  in 
1776,  and  yet  thirteen  years  after,  he  had  nothing  but  exe- 
cration for  those  miserable  subjects  who  in  France  were 
suffering  from  far  greater  wrongs  than  the  Americans.  It 
was  charged  that  he  had  no  sympathy  but  for  the  misery  of 
kings  or  queens,  and  that  he  forgot  the  suffering  millions 
of  the  wretched  common  people.  Whatever  the  explana- 
tion, his  passionate  denunciation  of  revolutionary  leaders 
and  principles  became  in  the  end  a  sort  of  frenzy.  As  the 
horrors  of  the  Revolution  increased,  they  excited  him  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  render  him  incapable  of  judging  the 
case  dispassionately.  The  Revolution  was  a  "  foul,  mon- 
strous thing,  wholly  out  of  the  course  of  moral  nature,"  — 
"  generated  in  treachery,  frauds  and  falsehood,  hypocrisy, 
and  unprovoked  murder ; "  the  revolutionists  were  mere 
"  quacks  and  impostors,"  "  a  nation  of  murderers,"  "  mur- 
derous atheists,"  etc.  All  this  may  have  been  more  or  less 
true,  but  the  fact  remains  that  his  denunciation  was  one- 
sided and  intemperate.  His  temper  in  this  exciting  crisis 
was  quite  unlike  the  calm  wisdom  of  his  treatment  of  the 
American  question.  His  violence  has  been  attributed  by 
some  of  his  biographers,  in  part,  to  the  effect  on  his  mind 
of  the  death  of  his  only  son,  —  a  youth  for  whom  he  had  a 
most  passionate  affection,  —  and  in  part  to  the  fact  that  his 
intense  love  for  the  established  order  of  things  was  shocked 
oeyond  measui"  by  the  utter  license  into  which  the  revolu- 
/ionists  were  betrayed.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  he  had  not 
formed  an  adequate  notion  of  the  corruption  and  incompe- 
tency of  the  French  government  and  society.  His  pam- 
phlet, "  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France,"  made 
him  the  most  popular  man  of  his  day  among  the  sovereigns 
of  Europe,  although  it  was  the  occasion  of  his  losing  many 
of  his  friends  in  Parliament. 

His  sense  of  right  and  justice  made  him  careless  of  re- 
sults to  himself.     He  accompanied  Willipm  Gerard  Hamil- 
Jpn  when  the  latter  was  made  Secretary  to  Ireland,  and  on 


Vlll 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


his  return  received  through  the  influence  of  Hamilton  a 
pension  of  three  hundred  pounds.  It  soon  appeared,  how- 
ever, that  the  pension  was  intended  as  a  bribe  to  bind  him 
to  a  slavish  devotion  to  the  will  of  his  patron.  Burke  in- 
dignantly resigned  the  pension.  In  those  days  no  man 
might  oppose  the  king  and  hope  for  preferment.  And  yet, 
knowing. this,  Burke  was  for  years  the  head  and  front  of 
opposition  to  the  king's  policy ;  so  that  in  spite  of  his 
acknowledged  ability  he  was  never  in  the  ministry,  nor 
indeed  in  any  other  considerable  ofl&ce.  When  in  1778,  it 
was  proposed  in  Parliament  to  relax  some  of  the  trade  re- 
strictions imposed  upon  Ireland,  Bristol,  the  city  for  which 
Burke  was  at  that  time  sitting  in  Parliament,  with  other 
trading  cities,  raised  a  violent  opposition.  Burke,  however, 
had  the  courage  to  speak  and  vote  in  favor  of  the  bill.  His 
ytction  in  this  particular,  together  with  his  advocacy  of  Cath- 
olic toleration,  gave  offence  to  his  constituents.  Two  years 
after,  he  lost  his  seat  in  Parliament. 

Literature  and  literary  men  had  always  been  his  delight : 
it  was  this  love  that  had  turned  him  aside  from  the  study  of 
the  law ;  it  was  this  that,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  engross-' 
ing  parliamentary  responsibilities,  made  him  seek  the  com- 
panionship of  that  famous  club  that  included  Reynolds, 
Garrick,  Goldsmith,  Gibbon,  Johnson,  and  Boswell.  His 
speeches  have  become  of  greater  influence  in  the  literary 
world  than  they  ever  were  in  the  political.  His  intensity 
of  purpose,  his  high  sense  of  justice,  impressed  him  pro- 
foundly with  the  responsibility  of  his  work  as  a  pleader : 
hence  the  whole  of  his  genius,  his  enthusiasm,  energy,  ima- 
gination, were  poured  into  the  volume  of  his  eloquence. 

The  best  recent  accounts  of  Burke  are  by  Mr.  John 
Morley,  "Edmund  Burke  :  'English  Men  of  Letters  ;  "  and 
•Edmund  Burke,  A  Historical  Study."  The  student  will 
also  find  an  excellent  sketch  by  the  same  author,  article 
"  Burke."  in  the  "  EncyclopaBdia  Britannica ;  "  and  he  may 
p/ofitably  consult  Leslie  Stephen's  "  English  Thought  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,"  volume  ii.,  chapter  ix. 


LOGICAL  FORM  OF  THE  SPEECH^ 

THE  STRUCTURE  OP  THE  INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  Introduction,  the  author  proposes  that  Parliament  originate 
measures  looking  towards  concession  .or  conciliation  with  the  colonies. 

Read  the  Introduction,  —i.  e.,  to  the  end  of  paragraph 
13. 

Show  the  logical  structure  oi  the  Introduction  by  making 
a  skeleton  analysis  of  the  thought.  The  following  is  given 
as  a  s|»ecimen  of  the  method  of  arranging  divisions  and 
subdivisions:  — 

I.  Renewed   opportunity  is   given  for    deliberating 
upon  a  plan  for  governing  America. 

1.  We  are  therefore  called  upon  to  attend  to 
the  matter. 

II.  The  awfulness  of  the  subject  so  oppressed  me 
that 

1.  I  instructed  myself  in  everything  that  re- 
^!    1    lated  to  the  colonies.        :/     s 

2.  I  formed  fixed  ideas  as  to  the  general  policy 
, ; ;  V     r    of  the  British  Empire.  V;;  i    ? 

State  accurately  and  clearly  in  a  single  sentence  the 
essential  thought  of  the  whole  Introduction. 

Study  Notes  I.-V.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xv. 

What  is  the  exact  meaning  of  the  word  ''partaker', 
occurring  in  par.  2  ? 

EXERCISES    ON   THE    INTRODUCTION. 

Express  in  single  sentences  the  essential  thought  of  the 
following  paragraph  groups :  Paragraphs  1  and  2 ;  3,  4, 
and5;  6,7,and8;  9  and  10  ;  11, 12,  and  13, 


X      THE  STRUVTURE   OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT. 

THE   STRUCTURE   OF   THE   DEVELOPMENT. 

In  the  Development,  the  author  sets  forth  the  arguments  in  favor  of 
conciliation  under  the  two  general  heads  of  (A)  Whether  Parliament 
ought  to  concede,  and  (B)  What  Parliament's  coacession  ought  to  be. 

Study  Note  VI.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xx. 

Remembering,  then,  that  the  one  purpose  for  which  the 
author  is  contending  is  that  Parliament  should  adopt  a 
policy  of  Conciliation,  read  par.  14. 

Read  pars.  15  and  16,  and  continue  the  construction  of 
the  skeleton  analysis.  Designate  the  main  divisions  by 
Roman  numerals,  subdivisions  by  Arabic,  minor  divisions 
by  italic  letters,  according  to  the  following  specimen  :  — 

■'^•v''  '■■■  A  --V:-  -m^' 

WHETHER   PARLIAMENT   OUGHT  TO   CONCEDE. 

I.  The  Population  of  the  Colonies. 

1  1-   Two  millions   of  Europeans  with  500,000 

others.     (Par.  15.) 
:<■/,■:         2.    Burke's  reasons  for  putting  the  population 
in  the  forefront.     (Par.  16.) 
r  i    K    ; ;•  a.   No  narrow  system  will  be  applicable. 

L   Care  is  needed  in  dealing  with  such 
an  object. 

Read  pars.  17-30  inclusive.  Here  the  author  gives 
another  reason  for  concession,  viz. :  II.  The  Industries  of 
tlie  Colonies.  Add  this  to  the  analysis,  and  show  the  form 
and  structure  of  the  thought  by  continuing  the  skeleton  an- 
alysis, thus : — 

II.  The  Industries  of  the  Colonies. 

1.    The  Commerce.    (Pars.  17-28  inclusive.) 


Express  in  your  own  words  the  idea  contained  in  the  sen- 
tence (par.  10),  "  Refined  policy  ever  has  been  the  parent  of 
confusion." 


THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT,  xi 

a.  Two  comparative  statements  of  export 
.  trade.     (Pars.  19-24  inclusive.) 

'  h.  Reflections  upon  the  wonderful  increase. 

(Par.  25.) 

c.  Increase  in  the  case  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  reference  to  imports.  (Pars.  26,  27, 
and  28.) 

2.  Agriculture.     (Par.  29.) 

a.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century,  colo' 
nies  imported  corn. 

h.  For  some  time  past  the  Old  World  has 
been  fed  by  the  New. 

3.  Fisheries.     (Par.  30.) 

%       '  a.  The  energy  with  which  they  have  been 

prosecuted. 
!■     ;  h.  It  has  been  due  not  to  the  constraints 

of  our  government. 

Read  pars.  31-35  inclusive.  Here  the  author  has  paused 
in  his  direct  argument  to  answer  those  who  contend  that, 
if  America  is  so  important,  it  is  worth  fighting  for.  Burke's 
retort  is  that  America  certainly  is  worth  fighting  for,  if 
fighting  a  people  be  the  best  way  of  gaining  them,  but  that 
he  \z  in  "avor  of  more  prudent  management.  The  teacher 
may  p. -^ vide  for  this  thought  in  the  outline,  by  making 
a  fourth  subdivision,  "  Objections  to  the  Employment  of 
Force,"  under  II.,  The  Industries  of  the  Colonies.  After 
this  digression  or  negative  argument,  the  author  returns 
(in  par.  36)  to  his  direct  argument. 

Read  pars.  36-46  inclusive.  Here  the  author  assigns 
another  reason  for  Conciliation,  viz. :  — 

III.   The  Temper  and  Character  of  the  People. 

Add  this  to  the  analysis,  together  with  the  six  subdi- 
visions. 

Study  Note  VII.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xx. 

Read  carefully  pars.  47-64  inclusive,  remembering  that 
in  this  argument  the  details  or  subdivisions  come  first,  as 
shown  in  Note  VII.  of  Rhetorical  Principles. 


xii     THE  STRUCTURE   OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT. 

Add  the  followiug  to  the  analysis :  — 

1.  Three  ways  in  which  (pars.  47-64)  Parliar 
ment  may  procetd  relative  to  this  rebellious  spirit 
of  the  colonies,  —  to  ch.inge  it,  to  prosecute  it  as 
criminal,  to  comply  with  it  as  necessary. 

I'v.    But  to  change  it  is  impossible  ;  to  prosecute 
it  is  inexpedient ;    therefore 
IV.   Compliance  is  a  necessity.     (Par.  64.) 
See  Note  VIII.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xxi. 
Read   pars.   65-68.      Continue  the  construction  of   the 
analysis,  thus :  — 

WHAT    parliament's   CONCESSION    OUGHT   TO   BE. 

I.  The  Nature  of  the   Concession  demanded 
by  the  Colonies.  •:    ; 

1.  They  are  taxed  by  a  Parliament  in  which 
they  are  not  represented.     (Par.  65.) 

•  M      •  a.    Burke  limits  himself  (pars.  66,  67)  to 

the  policy  of  the  question. 

2.  Burke's  idea  is,  therefore,  to  admit  the  colo- 
nists to  an  interest  in  the  Constitution.  (Par.  68.) 

Read  pars.  69-76  inclusive.  They  contain  objections  to 
Burke's  idea,  together  with  his  answer.  Add  to  the  an- 
alysis the  words  (a)  "  Objections  to  the  idea,"  as  a  minor 
division,  under  2,  Burke's  idea. 

Read  pars.  77-90  for  the  third  subdivision  under  the 
Nature  of  the  concession  and  continue  the  analysis  with 
proper  subdivisions. 

See  Note  IX.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xxi. 

Read  par.  91  and  continue  the  analysis.  This  paragraph 
gives  the  second  main  division  under  B,  viz.  :  — 

II.  The  Actual  Concession  proposed  by  Burke. 
Read   pars.    92-112,    arranging    the    thought    as    sub- 
divisions and  minor  divisions  under  II.,  The  Actual  Con- 
cession proposed  by  Burke.^     Express  the  meaning  of  each 

^  To  do  this  may  make  the  outline  too  long,  and  it  may,  at  the  dis* 
oration  of  the  teacher,  be  omitted. 


/ 


. 


THE  STRUCTURE   OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT,    xiu 

resolution  as  briefly  as  is  consistent  with  clearness  and  ac- 
curacy. 

See  Note  X.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xxii. 


EXERCISES    ON   THE    DEVELOPMENT. 

What   is   the   precise   meaning   of   the    word   "circum- 
stance "  in  par.  14  ? 

What  are  abstract  ideas  of  right  ?     (Par.  14.) 

Commit  to  memory  par.  25. 

What  is  a  seminal  principle  ?     (Par.  25.) 

Give  an  accurate  statement  of  Burke's  objections  to 
Force  as  a  means  of  governing  a  people.  (Pars.  32-35  in- 
clusive.) 

What  does  the  word  "  restive,"  par.  37,  mean  ?  Do  not 
assume  that  you  know.     Look  it  up. 

Commit  to  memory  par.  38. 

Amplify  the  statement  contained  in  par.  45,  "  Obedience 
is  what  makes  government,  and  not  the  names  by  which  it 
is  called." 

Write  a  brief  abstract  of  pars.  47-64. 
-  Restate  carefully  the  idea  (in  par.  61)  contained  in  the 
sentence,    "Sir,    these  considerations   have   great    weight 
.  .  .  that  very  litigation." 
Commit  to  memory  par.  88 


y^-'-- 


/r 


xiy     THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE  AUTHOR'S  PLAN 


THE   STRUCTURE   OF  THE  CONCLUSION.  > 

Read  j)ar.  113  to  the  end.     The  thought  contained  in  the 

Conclusion  may  be  arranged  under  four  main  divisions : 

I.    Resolutions  proposed  by  Burke.  (Pars.  113-122.) 
II.    Objections  Answered.     (Pars.  123-127.) 

III.  Burke's  Objections  to  Lord  North's  Plan.  (Pars. 

128-136.) 

IV.  Comparison  of  the  Two  Plans.   (Pars.  137-141.) 
V.   T}ie  Peroration.    142  to  the  end. 

Complete  the  analysis  by  adding  the  above  with  proper 
subdivisions  and  minor  divisions  of  the  thought. 

Study  Note  XI.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xxii.       ' 

THE  STRUCTURE  OF  THE   AUTHOR's  PLAN. 

For  the  study  of  this  subject,  see  Note  XII.  of  Rhetori- 
eal  Principles,  page  xxiii. 

THE  PARAGRAPH   STRUCTURE   OF  THE   SPEECH. 

See  Note  XIII.  of  Rhetorical  Principles,  page  xxvii. 

Exercise.     Give  a  Summary  of  the  rhetorical  principle? 
illustrated  by  the  author's  Introduction ;  by  the  Develop 
ment ;  by  the  Conclusion  ;  the  Plan  ;  Paragraph  Structure- 


EXERCISES   ON   THE    CONCLUSION. 

Express  in  your  own  words  the  argument  in  par.  126. 
What  is  the  author's  Theme  in  the  Peroration  ? 
In  a  single  sentence  give  the  essential  idea  of  the  whole 
Speech. 


TOPICAL  OUTLINE  OF  THE   SPEECH.^ 

The  Speech  consists  of  three  well  defined  parts : 

The  Introduction  —  to  the  end  of  Paragraph  13. 
The  Development  —  Paragraphs  14-112  inclusive. 
The  Conclusion  -—  Paragraph  113  to  the  end. 

The  Introduction. 

I.  Renewed  opportunity  to  consider  the  question. 

II.  The  awfulness  of  the  subject. 

III.  The  demand  for  a  fixed  policy. 

IV.  Burke's  proposition  is  peace. 

V.    Parliament  has   already  granted  that   conciliation  is 
admissible. 

The  Development.  "     -, 

!      A.   Whether  Parliament  ought  to  concede. 
B.    What  Parliament's  concession  ought  to  be. 

-''  Whether  Parliament  ought  to  concede. 

The  argument  of  the  author  is  that  Parliament  ought  to  ooncede, 
because  of  — 

I.    The  population  of  the  Colonies. 
II.    The  industries. 

1.  The  commerce. 

2.  The  agriculture. 

3.  The  fisheries. 

'  To  those  who  are  not  disposed  to  study  the  speech  with  the  minuteness  sug- 
gested in  the  Looioal  Fobm  of  the  Sfbeoh,  page  ix,  the  topical  outline  will  b«  of 
service. 


'\  I 


III. 


I 


1. 


xvi      TOPICAL   OUTLINE  OF  THE  SPEECH. 

4.    Objections  to  the  employment  of  force  in  over- 
coming the  opposition  of  the  Colonies. 

a.  It  is  temporary. 

b.  It  is  uncertain. 

c.  It  impairs  the  object. 

d.  Parliament  has  had  no  experience. 
The  temper  and  character  of  the  people  (which  is  de- 
termined by  — ) 

1.  Descent. 

2.  Their  form  of  government. 

3.  The  form  of  religion  in  the  North. 

4.  The  haughty  spirit  in  the  South. 
6.  Education  of  the  people. 
,6.  Their  remoteness.  '  ' 

(Here  the  author  changes  the  form  of  his  argument, 
giving  the  details  of  his  arg  jment  first,  and  from 
these  draws  a  conclusion  : ) 
The  three  ways  of  dealing  with  this  spirit  are, 
to  change  it  by  removing  the  cause  ;  to  prose- 
cute it  as  criminal ;  to  comply  with  it  as  a 
necessity. 
But  to  change  it  is  impossible ;  to  prosecute  it 
'^^   as   criminal    is  inexpedient   and   impossible. 
<.  -'         The  author  concludes  therefore  that  nothing 
is  left  for  Parliament  to  do  but  to  comply 
with  the  demand  for  concession.     It  is  this 
conclusion  which  becomes  the  last  argument 
in  favor  of  concession,  viz. : 
IV.    Compliance   with   the   demand   for   concession   is   h 
necessity. 

B. 

What  Parliamenfs  Concession  should  he. 

I.   The  nature  of  the  concession  demanded : 

1.  The  Colonies  are  taxed  without  representation. 

2.  Burke's  idea  is  that  the  people  should  be  a^. 

mitted  to  an  interest  in  the  Constitution. 


2. 


TOPICAL   OUTLINE   OF  THE  SPEECH,    xvii 

3.    Precedents  for  conciliatiou. 

a.  Ireland. 

b.  Wales. 

c.  Chester. 

d.  Durham.  ) 

IL    The  Actual  Concession  proposed, — to  pass  a  resolu- 
tion acknowledging  that  — 

1.  The  Colonies  have  no  representation  in  Parlia- 

ment. 

2.  They  have  therefore  been  touched  and  grieved 

by  taxation. 

3.  No   method  has   yet   been  devised  for  giving 

them  representation. 

4.  The  Colonies  have  legal  assemblies  — capable  of 

raising  taxes. 

5.  These  assemblies   have   in  times  past  granted 

"  aids"  to  his  majesty. 

6.  Experience  shows  that  these  "  aids  "  have  been 

more  profitable  than  the  measures  for  taxing 
the  Colonies. 


The  Conclusion. 

I.    Resolutions  proposed  by  Burke. 

1.  To  repeal  the  acts  that  interfere  with  the  local 

courts  and  legislatures. 

2.  To  order   that   judges  shall  hold  their  offices 

during  good  behavior  and  be  removed  for 
good  cause  only  and  by  due  process  of  law. 

3.  To  make  the  Courts  of  Admiralty  more  conve- 

nient. 
II.    Burke's  answer  to  the  objection  that  —  • 

1.  If  the  concession  be  made  to  the  Colonies  in  the 

matter  of  taxation,  they  will  make  further 
demands. 

2.  The  plan  will  destroy  the  unity  of  empire. 


xviii     TOPICAL    OUTLINE   OF  THE  SPEECH. 

III.  Burke's  objections  to  Lord  North's  plan. 

1.  The  plan  is  a  mere  project. 

2.  It  would  be  fatal  to  the  Constitution. 

3.  It  will  not  give  satisfaction  to  the  Colonies. 

4.  It  will  bring  in  greater  difficulties. 

IV.  Comparison  of  the  two  plans. 
Vi    The  peroration. 

The  safety  of  the  kingdom  lies  in  the  devotion  ot 
the  people  of  the  Colonies  to  the  Constitution  and 
in  their  affection  for  the  Mother  Country. 


I 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

THE    SPEECH. 

THE  INTRODUCTION. 

I. 

In  an  argument,  the  Introduction  may  have  an  important 
function.  What  it  is  in  the  Speech  on  Conciliation  will 
now  be  considered. 

The  Introduction  contains,  as  has  been  seen,  various  con- 
trasts of  the  plan  pursued  by  Parliament  with  the  one  pro- 
posed by  Burke.  He  tells  them  that  he  has  a  definite  plan, 
—  they  have  not ;  that  his  opinions  have  been  steadfast,  — 
theirs  wavering;  under  Parliament's  government  "things 
have  been  hastening  to  an  incurable  alienation  of  the  colo- 
nies, "  —  Burke's  plan  proposes  to  restore  "  the  former  un- 
suspecting confidence  in  the  mother  country."  By  reason 
of  the  plan  pursued  by  Parliament  —  or,  rather,  by  reason  of 
their  frequent  change  of  plan  —  "  America  has  been  kept 
in  continual  agitation ; "  the  one  advocated  by  Burke  means 
to  give  peace.  '  " 


The,  contrasts  are  not,  of  course,  arranged  as  above :  to 
have  done  so  would  probably  have  offended  his  hearers, 
whereas  his  desire,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  was  quite  the 
reverse   of   this.      Nevertheless,    without  placing   the   two 


EXERCISE. 

Find  other  points  of  contrast  in  the  two  plans. 


XX     RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 


methods  of  government  in  offensive  contrast,  the  author  has 
^o  skilfully  arranged  the  points  of  diti'erence,  that  his  own 
plan  stands  out  with  j)roniinence.  Without  giving  details, 
he  sets  forth  clearly  and  unmistakahly  what  he  intends  to 
show.  "  I  mean,"  he  says,  "  to  give  peace  ;  "  and  again,  "  I 
make  no  difficulty  in  affirming  that  the  proposals  of  concili- 
ation and  concession  ought  to  originate  from  us ; "  i.  e., 
he  means  to  show  that  Parliament,  abandoning  its  policy  of 
coercion,  should  give  the  colonies  peace  by  originating  pro- 
posals of  concession  and  conciliation. 

The  author  has  thus  a  definite  object  in  view,  and  has 
given  it  an  exact  statement  in  the  Introduction.  This, 
indeed,  is  the  first  common  function  of  the  Introduction. 

But  if  the  above  —  L  e.,  to  give  an  exact  statement  of 
his  object  —  had  been  his  only  purpose,  the  author  would 
probably  have  made  his  Introduction  shorter.  For  the  sim- 
ple purpose  of  stating  his  meaning  clearly,  the  single  sen- 
tence, "  I  make  no  difficulty  in  affirming  that  the  proposals 
of  concession  should  originate  from  us,"  would  have  been 
sufficient.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  that  to  have  introduced 
his  theme  so  bluntly  might  have  excited  only  disgust  and 
opposition,  instead  of  the  interest,  attention,  and  coopera- 
tion which  he  desired.  Hence  that  another  reason  existed 
for  the  long  Introduction  may  easily  be  inferred.  A  fur- 
ther examination  of  the  Speech  will  show  what  the  rea- 
son is. 

Occurring  with  such  frequency  as  to  give  a  distinct  tone 
to  what  the  author  says,  are  expressions  of  the  same  general 
nature  as  the  following :  "I  had  no  sort  of  reason  to  rely 
upon  the  strength  of  my  natural  abilities  for  the  proper 
execution  of  that  trust ;  "  he  assures  them  that  he  "  bows 
under  the  high  authority  of  the  House  ;  "  he  does  not  haz- 
ard "  a  censure  upon  the  motives  of  former  Parliaments  ;  " 
he  looks  upon  their  present  opportunity  to  reconsider  the 
subject  as  "  a  providential  favor ; "  he  admonishes  them 
that  they  are  called  upon  to  attend  to  America  as   by  a 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED,     xxi 

"  superior  warning  voice."     "  It  is,"  he  says,  "  an  awful 
subject,  or  there  is  none  this  side  of  the  grave."  * 

III. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  that  he  had  done  to  conciliate 
their  favor,  and  to  centre  their  thought  upon  the  gravity  of 
thp  '  iect,  Burke  could  not  be  certain  that  his  efforts  thus 
fa  '  VI  induce  Parliament  to  give  his  plan  calm,  un- 
ppt^  iced  consideration  :  he  might  find  that  the  House  did 
not  regard  their  opportunity  "  as  a  providential  favor ;  "  he 
might  find  their  prejudice  stronger  than  their  reason ;  and 
consequently  that  some  further  effort  might  still  be  nc  "essarjf 
before  it  would  be  safe  to  trust  the  details  of  his  plan  to 
their  judgment.  He  proceeds,  therefore,  to  argue  that  his 
plan  commends  itself  to  their  consideration  in  the  fact  that 
the  House,  by  accepting  the  resolution  moved  by  Lord 
North,  had  thereby  declared  conciliation  {i.  e.,  the  plan  he 
was  urging)  to  be  admissible ;  he  reminds  them  also  that 
they  had  gone  further,  —  that  they  had  declared  conciliation 
to  be  admissible  previous  to  any  submission  on  the  part  of 
America ;  and,  still  further,  that  the  House  had  gone  "  a 
good  deal  beyond  even  that  mark,"  and  had  admitted  that 
the  "  complaints  of  the  former  mode  of  exerting  the  right 
of  taxation  had  not  been  altogether  unfounded." 

The  author  has  kept  this  argumei:*;  as  the  climax  in  his 
effort  to  conciliate  their  favor.  It  is  easy  to  see,  if  he  could 
show  the  plan  for  which  he  WtS  contending  to  be  based  upon 
a  principle  which  Parliament  had  already  admitted  and  acted 
upon,  that  he  had  presumably  done  much  to  overcome 
prejudice,  to  awaken  interest  in  his  plan,  and  thereby  to 
lessen  the  labor  of  persuading  Parliament  to  adopt  it. 

*  What  sentiments  does  the  author  desire  to  arouse  to- 
wards himself  and  his  subject  by  the  employment  of  these 
and  similar  expressions  ? 

Find  other  expressions  indicating  the  same  general  poiv 
pose. 


1 


■;■''! 


xxii     RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 

To  arouse  interest,  to  overcome  prejudice,  to  gain  favor- 
able consideration  for  his  project,  appears  therefore  to  have 
been  the  author's  serious  purpose,  —  a  purpose  that  he  has 
endeavored  to  effect  by  his  respectful  attitude  towards  the 
high  authority  of  the  House,  by  directing  their  minds  to  the 
gravity  of  the  subject,  and  by  showing  that  the  principle  for 
which  he  was  contending,  they  had  already  admitted. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  twofold  purpose  ^  for  which 
the  author  employs  the  Introduction  is,  as  has  been  shown, 
first,  to  sei;  forth  clearly  the  purpose  for  which  the  Speech 
was  written  ;  second,  to  gain  for  his  plan  —  and  for  himself 
in  urging  it  —  the  goodwill  of  his  auditors,  their  favorable 
consideration  beforehand. 

^  This  twofold  purpose  may  be  taken  as  governing  the  construction 
and  employment  of  prose  Introductions.  From  the  study  of  the  Speech 
thus  far  certain  inferences  may  be  drawn  :  — 

First.  When  the  subject  is  easily  understood,  when  its  meaning  is 
clear  from  its  mere  statement,  when  the  minds  of  the  hearers  are  favor- 
ably disposed  ti,  the  speaker's  views,  viie  Introduction  may  be  dis- 
pensed with  altogether,  or  at  most  made  only  so  long  as  to  prevent 
inartistic  or  inelei/ant  bluntness. 

Second.  Where  the  subject  is  complex,  difficult  to  understand ; 
where,  on  account  of  its  importance,  it  needs  a  full  and  careful  state' 
ment ;  or  where,  on  the  other  hand,  prejudice  and  indifference  are  to  be 
encoiutered,  —  the  Introduction  affords  the  opportunity  of  explaining 
the  one  and  of  overcoming  the  other.  In  such  caseo  the  Introduction 
is  of  vital  consequence. 

Third.  The  Introduction  existing  simply  as  an  aid  to  the  Develop- 
ment, it  follows  that  nothing  may  properly  form  part  of  it  but  what  is 
essentially  connected  with  the  author's  purpose  in  the  Development. 
However  interesting  in  itself,  matter  that  does  not  in  some  way  bear 
upon  the  discussion  has  no  right  in  the  Introduction.  Cicero's  dictum 
expresses  the  true  idea :  "  Nor  is  the  exordium  of  a  speech  to  be 
Bought  from  without,  or  from  anything  unconnected  with  the  subject, 
but  to  be  derived  from  the  very  essence  of  the  cause." 

Fourth.  The  Introduction  should  not  be  written  until  the  Develop- 
ment has  been  written,  or  at  least  definitely  planned.  This  is  for 
the  obvious  reason  that,  unt^l  the  author  has  determined  upon  the  latter, 
the  question  as  to  how  his  sul  ject  shall  be  most  successfully  introduced 
Mumot  be  intelligently  settled. 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED,  xxiii 

IV. 

When  the  author  (par.  13)  states  that  he  means  to  give 
peace,  and  affirms  that,  in  order  thereto,  Parliament  should 
originate  a  policy  of  conciliation  and  concession,  he  states 
what  is  known  in  Rhetoric  as  the  Theme.  The  Theme  is 
the  definite  statement  of  the  purpose  for  which  the  work  is 
written.  In  the  present  case,  and  generally  in  arguments, 
the  Theme  is  a  proposition,  a  statement  to  be  proved.  It  is 
a  clear-cut,  definite  statement :  it  may  be  expressed  in  a 
single  sentence.  Thus  it  serves  as  a  limit  to  the  subject  and 
to  the  speaker.  Everything  admitted  to  the  Development 
must  in  some  way  bear  upon  the  truth  of  the  one  definite 
Theme  which  the  author  has  proposed.  How  well  the  au- 
thor keeps  to  this  requirement  will  be  seen  as  the  thought 
is  studiw J . 

',-"■■■''  ^' :.'■■:  '     '     y\'^  ?■ 

There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  Theme  and  the 
Subject.  The  Subject  is  general,  under  which  a  number 
of  specific  Themes  may  be  suggested.  A  Theme  is  fixed 
upon  only  when  the  general  subject  is  limited  to  a  par- 
ticular line  of  discussion,  thus  ;  under  Jhe  general  subject, 
"American  Affairs,"  Burke  might  huve  proposed  several 
themes,  for  instance :  "  The  Americans  should  be  allowed 
to  govern  themselves ;  "  "  Parliament's  misgovernraent  is 
directly  responsible  for  the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  colo- 
nies ;  "  *'  The  Americans  should  be  restrained  by  force  of 
arms;"  "  'he  resti'ictive  measures  should  be  made  more 
severe ;  "  "  Parliament  should  originate  proposals  of  conces- 
sion to  the  colonies."  In  each  of  these  cases  the  general 
topic,  American  Affairs,  is  limited  to  a  particular  line  of  dis* 
cusssion,  and  hence  each  becomes  a  Theme.^ 

£Xii(HCIS£j« 

State  other  Themes  under  the  general  topic,  Ameripaq 


xxiy RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Introduction  has  prepared  the  way  for  the  most  im- 
poitant  part  of  the  Speech,  —  the  Development.  The  latter, 
in  fact,  is  not  so  much  a  part  of  the  Speech  as  that  it  is  the 
Speech.  It  sets  forth  the  Development  of  the  author's  pur- 
pose, und  his  purpose  is  to  convince  the  House  of  the  truth 
of  his  Theme,  viz.,  that  Parliament,  abandoning  its  policy 
of  coercion,  should  make  proposals  of  concession  and  con< 
ciliation  to  the  colonies.  This  is  the  single  Theme  that  the 
author  sets  before  his  hearers.  Thus  limited,  he  will  natu- 
rally keep  from  the  Development  everything  that  does  not 
bear  upon  the  Theme  under  discussion ;  and,  by  a  natural 
inference,  will  endeavor  to  exhibit  his  Theme  completely 
and  fully.  The  study  of  the  author's  thought  will  show 
^w  successfully  he  meets  both  requirements.^ 


After  the  third  argument,  "  the  Temps.  :id  Character  of 
ihe  people,"  the  fourth  might  naturally  be  expected.  But 
\t  is  not  immediately  given.  The  reason  is,  that  the  author 
(in  pars.  47-64)  has  changed  the  form  of  his  reasoning. 
The  arguments  given  thus  far  are  known  in  rhetoric  as 
Deductive,  i.  e.,  arguments  in  which  the  general  truth  or 

^  The  editor's  purpose  is  not  to  discuss  the  Development  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  technical  argument.  Throughout  the  Speech  evi* 
dences  of  the  technique  of  the  trained  reasoner  and  pleader  are  found., 
but  they  are  of  such  special  application  that  they  might  prove  to 
the  preparatory  student  unprofitable  in  themselves,  and  serve  only 
to  divert  the  mind  from  lessons  that  are  plainer  and  of  wider  scope.  It 
is  rather  the  purpose,  by  directing  attention  to  the  thought,  to  show 
that  thv.  Development  has  been  constructed  upon  a  skilfully  laid  plan, 
—  a  plan  that  will  appear  clear  and  direct  as  the  Theme  was  definite 
and  single.  The  more  closely  Burke's  work  is  analyzed,  the  more 
clearly  will  appear  his  es'imate  of  singleness  of  purpose  and  definite- 
teas  of  method. 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED,    xxv 

principle  is  stated  first,  while  particulars  and  details  come 
afterwards. 

In  pars.  47-64,  however,  the  author,  changing  the  form  of 
his  argument,  gives  the  details  first,  and  from  these  draws 
a  conclusion  ;  and  the  conclusion  is  the  fourth  main  argu- 
ment. This  mode  of  reasoning  is  called  Inductive.  The 
author  leads  his  hearers  from  point  to  point  towards  a 
conclusion  that  he  has  had  in  mind  from  the  beginnings 
The  skill  and  art  he  shows  in  changing  the  form  of  hie 
argument  at  this  point  will  be  discussed  in  Note  XII. 

VIII. 

The  last  point  in  the  author's  argument  was,  that  com- 
pliance was  a  necessity.  He  has  thus  proved  that  Parlia- 
ment ought  to  concede,  first,  because  of  the  Population ; 
second,  because  of  their  Industries ;  third,  because  of  the 
Temper  and  Character  of  the  people ;  fourth,  because  com- 
pliance is  a  necessity,  —  Parliament  has  no  other  course  left : 
it  is  driven  to  concession  and  conciliation  by  the  necessity 
of  the  case.  This  finishes  the  first  leading  division  of  the 
author's  argument,  given  in  par.  14.  The  author  then  pro- 
ceeds  to  answer  B,  What  Parliament's  Concession  ought 

to  be. 

-■— ■ 

It  will  be  observed  that  thus  far  the  author  has  not  stated 
the  actual  cone  jsion  that  he  has  in  mind,  but  simply  the 
Nature  of  the  Concession.  Citing  the  examples  of  Ireland- 
Wales,  Durham,  and  Chester,  he  shows  the  authority  of  the 
crown  to  have  been  acknowledged  and  respected  just  in  pro 
portion  to  their  enjoyment  of  the  benefits  of  the  English  Con 
stitution.  As  shown,  therefore,  by  the  appeal  to  the  British 
Constitution,  the  Nature  of  the  Concession  demanded  for 
the  colonies  is  an  extension  of  their  rights  and  privileges 
as  English  subjects.  "  Why  not  apply  these  principles  to 
America,"  asks  the  author,  "  especially  as  America  is  in- 
finitely greater  ?  "    (Pur.  88.) 


cxvi  RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 

« 

This  is  really  the  end  of  the  author's  direct  argument.  Ht 
haa  answered  the  second  of  the  leading  questions  into  v^hich 
he  divided  the  Development,  and  is  now  ready  for  the  third 
part  of  the  Speech,  —  the  Conclusion.  This  extends  from 
par.  113  to  the  end  of  the  Speech.  "  The  question  now  is," 
says  the  author,  "  whether  you  will  abide  by  experience  or 
by  a  mischievous  theory." 


THE   CONCLUSION. 


XI. 


An  examination  of  the  Conclusion,  particularly  pars.  113~ 
122,  shows  that,  — 

First,  it  bears  strict  relation  to  what  has  formed  the  sub- 
ject of  discourse.  It  comes  in  consequence  of  the  ideas 
worked  out  in  the  Development ;  it  comes  as  a  direct  in- 
ference from  the  truths  of  the  Development.  If  the  Develop- 
ment be  true,  then  the  Conclusion  must  follow.  This  arrange- 
ment is  part  of  the  author's  plan :  the  thought  is  so  arranged 
as  to  lead  the  hearer  to  the  Conclusion  which  the  author  has 
had  in  mind  from  the  beginning.  Thus  Burke  argues  that, 
inasmuch  as  Conciliation  has  been  proved  to  be  the  proper 
course  of  action,  every  law  that  has  been  passed  to  uphold 
a  contrary  system  should  be  repealed.  Accept  the  truth  of 
the  argument  and  you  must  accept  the  reasonableness  of  the 
Conclusion.  Burke's  Conclusion,  therefore,  as  far  as  pars. 
113-122,  comes  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  what  he  has 
shown  in  the  Development.  Fiom  an  artistic  point  of  view, 
this  is  the  end  of  the  Speech :  i^urke  himself  says,  "  Here  I 
should  close." 

But,  second,  an  argument  addressed  simply  to  the  under- 
standing, particularly  if,  as  in  the  present  case,  the  hearers 
be  prejudiced  and  obstinate,  may  sometimes  fail  to  effect  the 
desired  object.  Hence  the  speaker  labors  to  overcome  objeo< 
iions.     Moreover,  orators  and  pleaders  have  recognized  tho 


kaETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED,  xxvii 

occasional  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  emotions- 
Burke  employs  this  method  of  appeal  in  the  Peroration,  par 
l43  to  the  end.  Here  he  dwells  with  earnestness  upon  the 
love  of  the  people,  upon  their  attachment  to  the  English 
Constitution,  as  the  sure  basis  of  all  service  to  the  empire. 
The  purpose  of  the  appeal  is  to  stimulate  the  hearers  to  take 
the  action  desired.  Burke's  knowledge  of  his  hearers  per 
haps  led  him  to  this  final  effort.^ 

THE  author's   plan. 

XII. 

The  Plan  upon  which  the  Speech  is  constructed  presents 
features  that  require  careful  study.  It  is  desirable,  for  this 
study,  that  the  student  have  before  him  the  outline  which  he 
has  been  directed  to  construct  throughout  the  reading. 

First.  It  is  evident  that  the  Development  proceeds  ac- 
cording to  a  clearly  defined  Plan.  Evidences  of  this  orderly 
an-angement  of  thought  occur  throughout  the  course  of  the 
Speech     It  is  simple  in  its  parts  and  definite  in  its  methods. 

Secoud.  We  shall  consider  more  in  detail  the  Plan  of  the 
Development,  —  the  essential  part  of  the  Speech.  The 
Development  has  kept  to  the  one  Theme  proposed  m  the 
Introduction,  viz.,  that  Parliament  should  make  proposals 
of  concession.  As  was  suggested  in  the  Introduction  and 
Development,  the  author,  having  limited  himself  to  a  Definite 
Theme,  has  kept  from  the  discussion  everything  irrelevant. 
Looking  over  the  outline  or  plan  of  the  thought,  it  will  be 


1  The  Conclusion  does  not  exist  for  itself  independent  of  the  De« 
velopment.  Its  purpose  is  simply  in  line  with  the  Development : 
whatever  is  effective  in  this  line  is  in  place  ;  whatever  is  not  thus  in 
line  has  no  place  in  the  Conclusion. 

The  same  general  considerations  that  govern  the  construction  and 
use  of  the  Introduction  govern  the  Conclusion, —  it  must  be  long  enough 
to  effect  its  legitimate  purpose  ;  i.  e.,  to  enahle  the  pleader  to  set  forth 
any  consequences  that  may  flow  from  the  truths  which  he  has  urged 
Ui  the  Development. 


li     rh 


xxyni  RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 

seen  that  nothing  there  presented  may  be  omitted  without 
impairing  the  argument.  Every  division  and  subdivision 
of  the  argument  has  its  part  in  effecting  the  one  purpose  of 
the  author.  Besides,  the  study  of  the  thought  will  shovr 
how  complete  and  conclusive  the  argument  is.  The  Develop 
Inent,  therefore,  has  Unity  and  Completeness.  V 

j  Third.  The  Arrangement  of  thought  is  made  with  th* 
studied  purpose  of  gaining  the  best  effect.  Evidences  ol 
this  purpose  are  found  in  the  fact  that  attention  is  centred 
upon  one  thought  at  a  time.  The  author  does  not  distract 
the  mind  by  any  confusion  or  overlapping  of  the  arguments : 
the  lines  between  the  arguments  are  distinctly  marked ;  and 
yet,  while  this  is  true,  the  different  arguments  are  made  to 
fit  each  other  so  nicely  that  they  make  a  chain  of  reasoning. 
Thus,  out  of  No.  I.,  Population,  there  naturally  grow  the 
next  two ;  while  from  the  Temper  and  Character  of  the 
people  there  naturally  grows  No.  IV.  The  hearer  is  thus 
made  to  follow  the  speaker  in  a  series  of  logical,  natural 
steps.  Again,  evidence  of  the  author's  studied  arrangement 
of  thought  is  found  in  his  continued  effort  after  Climax. 
Climax  consists  in  arranging  thought  in  the  order  of  strength, 
with  a  view  to  increasing  the  force  of  the  presentation. 
Numerous  evidences  of  this  occur.  It  is  found  in  the  In* 
troduction,  where,  in  his  effort  to  gain  favorable  considera- 
tion for  his  Flan,  the  author  finally  shows  that  what  he  is 
contending  for  the  House  has  already  admitted.  It  is  found 
again  in  his  leading  divisions  of  the  Development :  the  ques< 
tion  as  to  whether  Parliament  ought  to  concede  is  naturally 
preparatory  to  what  Parliament  ought  to  concede.  It  is 
found  in  the  arrangement  of  arguments  under  A.  Observe 
the  increasing  strength  of  the  arguments :  first,  the  Popular 
tion  —  2,600,000.  This  number,  great  as  it  is,  might  not 
have  appealed  to  the  prejudiced  Englishman :  the  question 
of  their  commercial  interest  might,  however.  Hence  the 
author  places  their  Industries  as  an  argument  of  additional 
«treugth.     This  in  turn  is  followed  by  the  Temper  and  Char 


k 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED.  xxlX 

acter  of  the  people:  they  are  not  men  of  slavish  spirit,-— 
there  prevails  among  them  a  fierce  and  intractable  spirit  of 
liberty.  The  Climax  is  evident  when  in  pars.  45  and  47  the 
author  asks,  What  shall  we  do  with  this  spirit  ?  There  are 
only  three  things  they  can  attempt,  —  to  change  the  spirit, 
to  prosecute  it  as  criminal,  to  comply  with  it  as  a  necessary 
evil.  But  they  can't  change  it,  —  unalterable  conditions  are 
against  the  change :  they  can't  prosecute  it  as  criminal,  be« 
cause  they  can't  bring  a  prosecution  against  a  whole  nation. 
Consequently  there  is  only  one  thing  left,  and  that  is  to 
comply  with  the  spirit,  to  submit  to  it  as  to  a  necessary  evil. 

It  was  doubtless  with  the  purpose  of  making  this  Climax 
still  more  forcible  that  the  author  (pars.  47-64)  changed  the 
form  of  his  argument  from  the  Deductive  to  the  Inductive, 
because  the  latter  proceeds  from  particulars  to  an  inference ; 
and  the  inference  finally  given,  which  the  hearers  themselves 
have  been  led  to  draw,  forms  an  argument  the  most  forcible 
of  all.  The  last  argument  would  have  lost  much  of  its  force 
if  it  had  been  arranged  as  the  others  were.     , .        ^  ,  ^,  ■  ; 

Finally,  the  studied  effort  of  the  author  after  the  best 
effect  in  the  arrangement  of  thought  is  shown  in  the  em- 
ployment of  the  principle  of  Suspense.  Everything  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Speech  points  towards  a  concession  which 
Burke  is  going  to  propose,  but  it  is  not  until  the  final  para- 
graphs of  the  Development  that  the  actual  concession  is 
set  forth.  Had  the  author  stated  the  actual  concession 
in  the  beginning,  interest  in  it,  as  may  easily  be  seen,  would 
have  gradually  waned,  and,  by  the  time  the  Speech  were 
finished,  the  proposed  concession  might,  perhaps,  have  been 
forgotten.  According  to  the  arrangement  of  the  author,  the 
mind  is  kept  looking  on  and  on  towards  a  concession  to  be 
proposed,  but  only  after  the  mind  has  been  stimulated  by 
arguments  in  favor  of  concession  is  the  concession  actually 
given.  This  arrangement  of  thought  is  the  Principle  of 
Suspense.  It  seems  clear  from  these  particulars  that  the 
Plan  shows  a  studied  effort  after  the  best  attainable  effect. 


XXX     RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED, 

Fourth.  The  author  writes  under  strong  feeling.  He 
appears  to  be  thoroughly  in  earnest,  to  be  completely  undex 
the  sway  of  the  idea  which  he  is  urging.  One  has  only  to 
read  to  be  impressed  with  this  characteristic  of  the  Speech. 
Take  it  at  almost  any  point,  and  the  deep  onward  sweep 
of  its  thought  carries  our  sympathies  with  it.  Paragraphs 
(taken  at  random)  that  show  this  depth  of  feeling  are  thf 
following:  25,  30,  38,  40,  45,  79,  88,  142. 

The  features  that  have  been  touched  upon  as  characteris 
tic  of  this  Speech  are  among  those  from  which  language 
acquires  in  great  degree  "  clearness,  precision,  fitness,  and 
effectiveness."* 


^  There  are  two  steps  in  composition-writing  which,  to  untrained 
minds,  are  especially  irksome  and  difficult,  —  the  selection  of  a  defiuite, 
narrowly  limited  Theme,  and  the  construction  of  a  Plan  ;  and  yet,  of  al!. 
its  processes,  Composition  gains  most  from  the  selection  of  the  one  anc! 
the  construction  of  the  ocher.  In  this  Speech  the  student  has  followed 
the  plan  of  a  Master  in  the  Art  of  Composition,  has  observed  the  defi- 
niteness  of  his  Theme,  the  skill  shown  in  the  plan.  To  the  common 
testimony  of  literary  men  regarding  the  importance  of  earnest,  pains< 
taking  arrangement  of  thought,  it  may  be  added  that  the  study  of  every 
work  of  serious  purpose  shows  it  to  proceed  according  to  a  plan  carefully 
constructed.  Even  to  trained  minds,  thought  does  not  always  occur 
in  logical  sequence  and  proportion.  For  the  best  arrangement,  labor 
even  to  these  is  essential.  It  is  of  still  greater  importance  to  those  who 
are  beginners  in  the  Art.  To  construct  a  plan  with  a  logical,  effective 
irrangement  of  parts,  means  labor,  but  it  is  labor  that  must  be  borne. 
It  is  when  the  thought  lies  before  us  in  an  outline  or  plan  that  we  can, 
as  it  were,  see  it  in  its  force  or  weakness  ;  see  it  in  its  various  relations ; 
see  it  to  be  proper  or  improper  in  arrangement  and  proportion.  We 
can,  in  a  word,  criticise  it,  and  put  to  ourselves  the  question  whether  oui 
thought  and  our  method  are  the  best  suited  to  effect  our  purpose.  For 
the  beginner  in  composition  the  plan  is  a  necessity. 

The  observations  made  upon  the  plan  of  Burke's  Speech  have  a 
general  application  to  the  student's  work  and  composition. 

1.  The  Development  should  keep  to  a  single  definite  Theme. 

2.  The  Development  should  proceed  according  to  a  definite  plan. 
8.  The  Thought  should  be  arranged  with  a  view  to  the  best  effect. 

4.  The  student  should  write  with  earnestness. 

5.  In  making  the  outline  the  mind  should  be  occupied  with  th« 
masses  and  an-angement  of  though' . 


RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED,      xxxi 


THE   PARAGRAPH    STRUCTURE   OF   THE   SPEECH. 


,     XIII. 

Clearness  and  Force  are  aided  by  the  Structure  of  the 
author's  Paragraphs.  A  Paragraph  is  a  chain  of  sentences 
leading  to  the  development  of  the  single  thought  that  forms 
its  topic.  An  unsystematic,  haphazard  collection  of  sen- 
tences, without  unity  of  purpose,  does  not  therefore  conform 
to  the  definition.  Since  its  purpose  is  to  develop  a  single 
idea  or  theme,  the  place  and  number  of  Paragraphs  will  be 
determined  in  part  by  the  divisions  under  which  the  thought 
is  logically  gi'ouped.  Each  important  thought  will  have 
its  Paragraph;  each  Paragraph  its  thought.  Constructed 
according  to  this  plan,  they  add  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
work  by  indicating  precisely  the  thought  under  discussion. 
The  theme  will  be  more  or  less  clear  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  composition.  In  Narrative  and  Descriptive 
writing,  it  is  frequently  difficult  to  express  the  Paragraph 
theme  in  words  ;  but  in  works  of  a  formal  kind,  such  as  the 
Speech  on  Conciliation,  the  difficulty  does  not  exist. 

In  the  Construction  of  the  Paragraph  three  general  qnali 
ties  are  essential,  —  Unity,  Proportion,  and  Sequence. 

Unity  requires  that  everything  admitted  to  the  Paragraph 
be  directed  to  one  end,  —  the  development  of  the  single  idea 
that  forms  the  Paragraph  subject.  In  fact  this  requirement 
is  simply  an  extension  of  the  idea  of  Unity  that  governs 
the  construction  of  the  discourse  as  a  whole.  As  to  the  Unity 
of  the  Paragraph,  while  authors  of  Burke's  day  were  not 
so  particular  as  those  of  recent  times,  yet  the  study  of  the 
Speech  will  show  with  what  earnestness  the  author  has  ad 
hered  to  its  essential  requirements. 

Proportion  requires  that,  the  thought  best  suited  for  de 
veloping  the  idea  having  been  deteimined  upon,  a  propel 
relation  be  maintained  between  the  principal  and  subordinate 
parts,  —  that  what  is  important  be  given  importance,  both  h 


xxxii     RHETORICAL  PRINCIPLES  ILLUSTRATED. 

the  position  it  occupies  in  the  Paragraph  and  in  the  space  it 
occupies ;  and  that  what  is  of  subordinate  importance  be 
correspondingly  subordinated. 

Sequence  requires  that  the  thoughts  of  the  Paragraph  fol- 
low each  other  in  natural  logical  order.  This  order  should 
be  towards  a  climax  in  interest  and  importance.  This  quality 
of  Burke's  plan  of  work  has  been  pointed  out :  it  appears 
in  the  Speech  as  a  whole  and  in  its  several  parts. 

EXERCISE. 

Test  these  requirements  in  paragraphs  taken  at  random. 
Do  the  same  with  pars.  30-40. 

Show  the  sequence  of  thought  in  par.  66  by  making  a 
^^hain  of  short  sentences  expressing  the  successive  ideas. 


', ! 


*   \ 


■  >  <.:' 


■  ■■;,  ^  ',v'  . 


EDMUND  BURKE'S  SPEECH 

ON    MOVING    HIS     RESOLUTIONS    FOR    CONCILUTTOy 
WITH    THE   AMERICAN  COLONIES.     HOUSE   OF  COM 
MONS,  MARCH  22,  1775. 


HISTORICAL  NOTE. 

Incensed  at  the  violent  proceedings  in  the  colonies,  and  partlo 
nlarly  at  those  in  the  city  of  Boston,  Parliament  proceeded  t« 
retaliate.  First,  they  passed  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  forbidding 
all  vessels  to  leave  or  enter  Boston  harbor.  The  hope  was,  oi 
course,  to  punish  Boston  by  crippling  its  trade.  As  is  well  known, 
other  cities  in  the  vicinity  offered  the  use  of  their  ports  to  the 
Boston  merchants.  But  this  —  much  as  it  showed  sympathy  for 
Boston  —  could  not  save  the  latter  from  serious  inconvenience 
and  loss.  The  act  failed,  however,  to  effect  all  that  Parliament 
had  designed.  The  second  act  in  retaliation  was  the  Massachu- 
setts Bill,  which  took  the  government  of  the  colony  from  the 
hands  of  the  people  and  gave  it  into  the  power  of  the  King  or 
his  agents  ;  third,  the  Transportation  Bill,  which  directed  that 
Americans  committing  murder  in  resisting  law  should  be  sent 
for  trial  to  England.  The  effect  of  all  these  laws  was  to  lead  to 
a  still  closer  union  than  ever  among  the  colonies  in  their  pur' 
pose  of  resisting  English  encroachment.  The  outgrowth  of  this 
purpose  was  the  first  Continental  or  General  Congress,  which 
met  in  Philadelphia,  September,  1774.  They  at  once  agreed 
upon  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  commended  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  their  brave  resistance,  demanded  the  repeal  of  va- 
rious Acts  which  they  regfarded  as  infringements  of  their  rights, 
and  issued  a  call  for  another  Congress  to  meet  in  the  May  fol' 
lowing.  The  union  of  the  American  Colonies  in  the  sentiment 
and  purpose  of  resisting  the  invasion  of  their  rights  was  now 
general.  By  this  time  the  English  statesman  had  begun  to  real- 
ize that  this  united  resistance  was  a  source  of  great  danger. 
Chatham,  a  warm  friend  of  the  colonies,  more  than  once,  in  violent 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


deniinciati'^n  of  the  Acts  of  Purliament,  praised  the  colouies  for 
their  boldness  ;  and,  dechiring  that  effectual  opposition  to  America 
was  under  the  circumstances  impossible,  iirged  that  the  obnoxious 
laws  be  repealed.  Throughout  the  discussions,  Burke,  who  had 
entered  Parliament  about  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  had  been  ou  the  side  of  liberal  and  fair  treatment  of  the 
colonies. 

In  the  midst  of  the  stormy  debates  that  occurred.  Lord  North, 
nho  had  been  offensively  active  in  urging  the  King's  and  Parlia- 
ment's policy  of  coercion,  brought  into  the  House  what  he  called 
a  plan  for  conciliating  the  differences  with  the  colonies.  It  pro- 
vided, in  brief,  that  when  any  of  the  colonies  should  propose  to 
make  provision,  according  to  its  "  condition,  circumstances,  and 
situation,"  for  contributing  to  the  common  defense  and  for  the 
support  of  the  civil  government,  Parliament  would  refrain  from 
laying  any  taxes  upon  such  a  colony,  except  such  as  were  neces- 
sary for  the  regulation  of  commerce. 

Burke  charged  that  the  Ministry  knew  this  to  be  a  mere  trick 
for  the  purpose  of  disuniting  the  colonies.  Since  Parliament 
was  to  be  the  judge  of  what  was  the  proper  proportion  for  each 
colony  to  pay,  according  to  its  "  condition,  circumstances,  and  situ- 
ation," he  represented  that  the  scheme  would  prove  a  sort  of  auc- 
tion in  which  Parliament  would  give  the  exemption  from  taxes 
to  the  colonies  bidding  highest  for  the  privilege.  Moreover,  he 
urged  that  the  plan  was  likely  to  produce  greater  disorders  than 
before,  because,  under  the  eonditiors  of  the  plan,  neither  the 
amount  »f  th  tax  nor  the  purpose  to  which  it  was  to  be  applied 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  colony. 

Nevertheless,  the  word  Conciliation  had  been  used,  and  shortly 
after,  March  22,  1775,  Burke  brought  in  his  scheme  of  concilia- 
tion, which  in  his  judgment  would  be  effective  in  removing  the 
ground  of  difference  between  Parliament  and  the  colonies.  This 
scheme  is  set  forth  in  the  Speech  on  Conciliation. 

Meantime  stirring  events  were  occurring  in  the  colonies  :  the 
Provincial  Congress,  which  now  governed  Massachusetts,  had 
ordered  the  enrollment  of  20,000  minute-men  ;  provisions,  arms, 
and  ammunition  were  being  purchased  and  collected :  General 
Gage,  alarmed  at  the  threatening  aspect  of  affairs,  had  begun  to 
erect  fortifications  for  his  defence;  and  within  a  month  of  the 
time  when  Burke  delivered  his  Speech  on  Conciliation,  Lexington 
was  fought. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE   COLONIES. 


EDMUND  BURKE'S  SPEECH. 

1  HOPE,  Sir,  that  notwitlistanding  the  austerity  *  of  the 
Chair,  your  good  nature  will  incline  you  to  some 

degree  of  indulgence  towards  human  frailty.     You   duction 

...  §§  1-13. 

will  not  think  it  unnatural  that  those  who  have  an 
object  depending,  which  strongly  engages  their  hopes  and 
fears,  should  be  somewhat  inclined  to  superstition.  As  I 
came  into  the  House  full  of  anxiety  about  the  event  ^  of  my 
motion,  I  found,  to  my  infinite  surprise,  that  the  grand 
penal  bill,^  by  which  we  had  passed  sentence  on  the  trade 
and  sustenance  of  America,  is  to  be  returned  to  us  *  from 
the  other  House.  I  do  confess  I  could  not  help  looking  on 
this  event  as  a  fortunate  omen.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  sort  of 
providential  favor,  ])y  which  we  are  put  once  more  in  pos- 
session of  our  deliberative  capacity  upon  a  business  so  very 
questionable  in  its  nature,  so  very  uncertain  in  its  issue. 
By  the  return  of  this  bill,  which  seemed  to  have  taken  its 
flight  forever,  we  are  at  this  very  instant  nearly  j  Renewed 
as  free  to  choose  a  plan  for  our  American  Gov-  J^t^*}oj"f)e. 
ernment  as  we  were  on  the  first  day  of  the  session,   liberation. 

^  austerity,  i.  e.,  your  dignity  as  Chairman  of  the  House. 

2  event  ^  outcome  or  result. 

"  grand  penal  bill,  i.  e.,  "  an  Act  to  restrain  the  trade  and 
commerce  of  the  Provinces  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  New 
Hampshire  and  the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantation  in  North  America,  to  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  the  British  Islands  in  the  West  Indies;  and  to 
prohibit  such  Provinces  and  colonies  from  carrying  on  any  fish- 
ery on  the  Banks  of  New  Foundland  and  other  places  therein 
mentioned  under  certain  conditions  and  limitations."  The  latter 
p^rt  of  this  bill  was  especially  hateful  to  the  colonies,  in  view 
ot  what  Burke  says  about  the  importance  of  the  fisheries. 

*  is  to  be  returned  to  us,  i.  e.,  the  bill  had,  according  i 
English  parliamentary  procedure,  been  sent  to  the  House  of  Lords 
for  consideration  ;  but  failing  of  approval,  it  had  been  returned 
with  an  amendment  to  the  House  in  which  it  had  originated. 


1^ 


#  '^    :  EDMUND  BURKE. 

If,  Sir,  we  incline  to  the  side  of  conciliation,  we  are  not  at 
all  embarrassed  (unless  we  please  to  make  ourselves  so)  by 
any  incongruous  mixture  of  coercion  and  restraint.  We 
are  therefore  called  upon,  as  it  were  by  a  superior  warning 
We  are  voice,  again  to  attend  to  America;  to  attend  to 
toattendto  *^^  whole  of  it  together  ;  and  to  review  the  sub- 
America,  ject  with  an  unusual  degree  of  care  and  calmness. 
2.  Surely  it  is  an  awful  subject,  or  there  is  none  so  on 

this  side  of  the  grave.     When  I  first  had  the 
II.  The  .  . 

"Awful-      honor  of  a  seat  m  this  House,  the  affairs  of  thai 

U6BS  ^'  of 

the  Sub-  continent  pr'^'-'?ed  themselves  upon  us  as  the  most 
important  and  most  delicate  ^  object  of  Parlia- 
mentary attention.  My  little  share  in  this  great  delibera- 
tion oppressed  me.  I  found  myself  a  partaker  in  a  very 
high  trust ;  and,  having  no  sort  of  reason  to  rely  on  the 
strength  of  my  natural  abilities  for  the  proper  execution  of 
that  trust,  I  was  obliged  to  take  more  than  common  pains 
to  instruct  myself  in  everything  which  relates  to  our  colo- 
nies. I  was  not  less  under  the  necessity  of  forming  some 
fixed  ideas  concerning  the  general  policy  of  the  British 
Empire.  Something  of  this  sort  seemed  to  be  indispensa- 
ble, in  order,  amidst  so  vast  a  fluctuation  of  passions  and 
opinions,  to  concentre  my  thoughts,  to  ballast  my  conduct, 
to  preserve  me  from  being  blown  about  by  every  wind  ^  of 
fashionable  doctrine.  I  really  did  not  think  it  safe  or 
manly  to  have  fresh  principles  to  seek  upon  every  fresh 
mail  which  should  arrive  from  America. 
,  3.  At  that  period  '  I  had  the  fortune  to  find  myself  in 
My  Senti-  perftJct  concurrence  with  a  large  majority  in  this 
b^e^^UnY*  House.  Bowing  under  that  high  authority,  and 
viating.  penetrated  with  the  sharpness  and  strength  of 
that  early  impression,  I  have  continued  ever  since,  without 

^  delicate,  i.  e.,  requiring  care  in  its  treatment. 
*  ty  every  wind.    See  Ephesians  iv.  14. 
B  At  that  period;  referring  to  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Ad 
early  in  1766. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.         6 

the  least  deviation,  in  my  oiiginal  sentiments.  Whether 
this  be  owing  to  an  obstinate  perseverance  in  error,  or  to  a 
religious  adherence  to  what  appears  to  me  truth  and  reason, 
it  is  in  your  equity  to  judge. 

4.  Sir,  Parliament,  having  an  enlarged  view  of  objects, 
made  during  this  interval  more  frequent  changes  Parliament 
in  their  sentiments  and  their  conduct  than  could  F*gf^a* 
be  justified  in  a  particular  person  upon  the  con-  cimugea. 
tvacted  scale  of  private  informrtion.  But  though  I  do  not 
hazard  anything  approaching  to  a  censure  on  the  motives 
of  former  Parliaments  to  all  those  alterations,  one  fact  is 
undoubted  —  that  under  them  the  state  of  America  has 
been  kept  in  continual  agitation.  Everything  administered 
as  remedy  to  the  public  complaint,  if  it  did  not  produce, 
was  at  least  followed  by,  an  heightening  of  the  distemper ; 
until,  by  a  variety  of  experiments,  that  important  country 
has  been  brought  into  her  present  situation  ^  —  a  situation 
which  I  will  not  miscall,  which  I  dare  not  name,  which  I 
scarcely  know  how  to  comprehend  in  the  terms  of  any 
description. 

6.  In  this  posture.  Sir,  things  stood  at  the  beginning  of 
the  session.  About  that  time,  a  worthy  member  '^  of  great 
Parliamentary  experience,  who,  in  the  year  1766,  filled  the 
chair  of  the  American  committee  with  much  ability,  took 
me  aside ;  and,  lamenting  the  present  aspect  of  our  politics, 
told  me  things  were  come  to  such  a  pass  that  our  former 
methods  of  proceeding  in  the  House  would  be  no  longer 
tolerated :  that  the  public  tribunal  (never  too  indulgent  to 
a  long  and  unsuccessful  opposition)  would  now  scrutinize 
our  conduct  with  unusual  severity  :  that  the  very  vicissi- 

1  her  present  situation.  At  the  very  time  Burke  was 
speaking,  the  people  of  the  colonies  were  preparing  for  war  in 
earnest,  collecting  powder,  weapons,  and  provisions,  recruiting 
and  arming  the  "  minute-men."  General  Gage,  alarmed  at  the 
threatening  aspect  of  affairs,  had  begun  to  erect  fortifications^ 
Lexington  was  fought  within  a  mouth. 

^  -wrorthy  member;  Mr.  Rose  Fuller. 


e 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


tudes  and  shiftings  of  Ministerial  measures,  instead  of 
fioiivicting  their  authors  of  inconstancy  and  want  of  system, 
would  be  taken  as  an  occasion  of  charging  us  with  a  prede- 
termined discontent,  which  nothing  could  satisfy  ;  whilst 
we  accused  every  measure  of  vigor  as  cruel,  and  every 
proposal  of  lenity  as  weak  and  irresolute.  The  public,  he 
said,  would  not  have  patience  to  see  us  play  the  game  out 
with  our  adversaries ;  we  must  produce  our  hand.  It  would 
III.  The  ^®  expected  that  those  who  for  many  years  had 
forTFfxed  ^®®"  active  in  such  affairs  should  show  that  they 
Policy.  had  formed  some  clear  and  decided  idea  of  the 
principles  of  colony  government ;  and  were  capable  of 
drawing  out  something  like  a  platform  ^  of  the  ground 
which  might  be  laid  for  future  and  permanent  tranquillity. 

6.  I  felt  the  truth  of  what  my  honorable  friend  repre- 
sented ;  but  I  felt  my  situation  too.  His  application  might 
have  been  made  with  far  greater  propriety  to  many  other 
gentlemen.  No  man  was  indeed  ever  better  disposed,  or 
worse  qualiiied,  for  such  an  undertaking  than  myself. 
Though  I  gave  so  far  in  to  his  opinion  that  I  immediately 
threw  my  thoughts  into  a  sort  of  Parliamentary  form,  I 
was  by  no  means  equally  ready  to  produce  them.  It  gen- 
erally argues  some  degree  of  natural  impotence  of  mind,  or 
some  want  of  knowledge  -f  the  world,  to  hazard  plans  of 
government  except  from  .*  seat  of  authority.  Propositions 
are  made,  not  only  ineffectually,  but  somewhat  disreputa- 
bly,^ when  the  minds  nf  men  are  not  properly  disposed  for 
their  reception  ;  and,  for  my  ])art,  I  am  not  ambitious  of 
ridicule  ;  not  absolutely  a  candidate  for  disgrace. 
-~  7.  Besides,  Sir,  to  speak  the  plain  truth,  I  have  in  gen 
eral  no  very  exalted  opinion  of  the  virtue  of  paper  govern- 
ment ;  nor  of  any  politics  in  which  the  plan  is  to  be  wholly 
separated  from  the  execution.     But  when  I  saw  that  anger 


*  platform  =  plan. 

^  disreputably,  i.  e.,  the  maker  of  the  proposition  falls  into 
disrepute  or  discredit. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.         7 

and  violence  prevailed  every  day  more  and  more,  and  that 
things  were  hastening  towards  an  incurable  alienation  of 
our  colonies,  I  confess  my  caution  gave  way.  I  felt  this 
as  one  of  those  few  moments  in  which  decorum  yields  to  a 
higher  duty.  Public  calamity  is  a  mighty  leveller ;  and 
kihere  are  occasions  when  any,  even  the  slightest,  chance  of 
doing  good  must  be  laid  hold  on,  even  by  the  most  incon 
siderable  person. 

8.  To  restore  order  and  repose  to  an  empire  so  great 
and  so  distracted  as  ours,  is,  merely  in  the  attempt,  an 
undertaking  that  would  ennoble  the  flights  of  the  highest 
genius,  and  obtain  pardon  for  the  efforts  of  the  mean 
est  understanding.  Struggling  a  good  while  with  thesd 
thoughts,  by  degrees  I  felt  myself  more  firm.  I  derived, 
at  length,  some  confidence  from  what  in  other  circum- 
stances usually  produces  timidity.  I  grew  less  anxious, 
even  from  the  idea  of  my  own  insignificance.  For,  judging 
of  what  you  are  by  what  you  ought  to  be,  I  persuaded 
myself  that  you  would  not  reject  a  reasonable  proposition 
because  it  had  nothing  but  its  reason  to  recommend  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  being  totally  destitute  of  all  shadow  of 
influence,  natural  or  adventitious,  I  was  very  sure  that,  if 
my  proposition  were  futile  or  dangerous  —  if  it  were 
weakly  conceived,  or  improperly  timed  —  there  was  nothing 
exterior  to  it  of  power  to  awe,  dazzle,  or  delude  you.  You 
will  see  it  just  as  it  is ;  and  you  will  treat  it  just  as  it 
deserves. 

9.  The  proposition  is   peace.     Not  peace   through  ♦he 
medium  of  war ;  not  peace  to  be  hunted  through   jy  jj 
the  labyrinth   of    intricate    and    endless   negotia-   fj„°P^^*' 
tions ;  not  peace  to  arise  out  of  universal  discord   Peace, 
fomented,  from  principle,  in  all  parts  of  the  empire ;  not 
peace  to  depend  on  the  juridical  determination  of  perplex- 
ing questions,  or  the  precise  marking  the  shadowy  bounda- 
ries of  a  complex  government.     It  is  simple  peace ;  sought 
\n  its  natural  course,  and  in  its  ordinary  haunts.     It  if 


EDMUND  BURKE. 

peace  sought  in  the  spirit  of  peace,  and  laid  in  principles 
purely  pacific.  I  propose,  by  removing  the  ground  of  the 
difference,  and  by  restoring  the  former  unsuspecting  con- 
fidence^ of  the  colonies  in  the  Mother  Country,  to  give 
permanent  satisfaction  to  your  people ;  and  (far  from  a 
scheme  of  ruling  by  discord)  to  reconcile  them  to  each 
other  in  the  same  act  and  by  the  bond  of  the  very  same 
interest  which  reconciles  them  to  British  government. 

10.  My  idea  is  nothing  more.  Refined  policy  ever  has 
been  the  parent  of  confusion ;  and  ever  will  be  so,  as  long 
as  the  world  endures.  Plain  good  intention,  which  is 
as  easily  discovered  at  the  first  view  as  fraud  is  surely 
detected  at  last,  is,  let  me  say,  of  no  mean  force  in  the 
government  of  mankind.  Genuine  simplicity  of  heart  is 
an  healing  and  cementing  principle.  My  plan,  therefore, 
being  formed  upon  the  most  simple  grounds  imaginable, 
may  disappoint  some  people  when  they  hear  it.  It  has 
nothing  to  recommend  it  to  the  pruriency  of  curious  ears. 
There  is  nothing  at  all  new  and  captivating  in  it.  It  has 
nothing  of  the  splendor  of  the  project  ^  which  has  been 
lately  laid  upon  your  table  by  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue 
ribbon.'  It  does  not  propose  to  fill  your  lobby  with  squab- 
bling colony  agents,*  who  will  require  the  interposition  of 
your  mace,  at  every  instant,  to  keep  the  peace  amongst 
them.      It   does   not    institute   a   magnificent    auction   of 

^  unsuspecting  confidence.  This  expression  was  used  by 
the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  to  express  the  state  of  feeling  in 
the  colonies  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

2  the  project.  See  Historical  Note  —  referring  to  Lord 
North's  project. 

'  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon ;  referring  to  Lord  North  — 
a  Knight  of  the  Garter.  The  badge  of  the  order  was  a  blue 
ribbon. 

*  colony  agents.  Since  the  colonies  had  no  direct  repre- 
sentatives in  Parliament  they  engaged  some  particular  member 
to  look  after  their  interests.  Burke  was  such  an  agent  for  a 
short  time  for  New  York. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.         9 

finance,  where  captivated  provinces  come  to  general  ransom 
by  bidding  against  each  other,  until  you  knock  down  the 
hammer,  and  determine  a  proportion  of  payments  beyond 
all  the  powers  of  algebra  to  equalize  and  settle. 

11.  The  plan  which  I  shall  presume  to  suggest  derives, 
however,  one  great  advantage    from   the  proposition   and 
registry  of  that  noble  lord's  project.    The  idea  of  y  pariia- 
conciliation  is   admissible.     First,  the  House,  in  ment  has 

alieady 

accepting  tlie  resolution  moved  by  the  noble  lord,^  granted  tha. 

*^        °  T  1  •  Coiiciliatioi 

has    admitted,     notwithstanding    the    menacing  is  Admis- 
front  of  our  address,*^  notwithstanding  our  heavy 
bills  of  pains  and    penalties  —  that  we  do  not  thmk  our 
selves  precluded  from  all  ideas  of  free  grace  and  bounty. 

12.  The  House  has  gone  farther ;  it  has  declared  con- 
ciliation admissible,  previous  to  any  submission  on  the  part 
of  America.  It  has  even  shot  a  good  deal  beyond  that 
mark,  and  has  admitted  that  the  complaints  of  our  former 
mode  of  exerting  the  right  of  taxation  were  not  wholly 
unfounded.  That  right  thus  exerted  is  allowed  to  have 
something  reprehensible  in  it,  something  unwise,  or  some- 
thing grievous  ;  since,  in  the  midst  of  our  heat  and  resent- 
ment, we,  of  ourselves,  have  proposed  a  capital  alteration ; 
and  in  order  to  get  rid  of  what  seemed  so  very  exception- 
able, have  instituted  a  mode  that  is  altogether  new ;  one 
that  is,  indeed,  wholly  alien  from  all  the  ancient  methods 
and  forms  of  Parliament. 

13.  The  principle  of  this  proceeding  is  large  enough  for 

1  resolution  moved  by  the  noble  lord  ;  referring  to 
Lord  North's  scheme  of  conciliation. 

2  menacing  front  of  our  address.  Lord  North  had  moved 
that  an  address  be  presented  to  his  Majesty,  thankiug  him  for 
submitting  papers  relating  to  disturbances  in  America;  declar- 
ing that  Massachusetts  Bay  was  in  a  state  of  rebellion;  beseech- 
ing his  Majesty  to  take  effectual  measures  to  enforce  obedience ; 
and  finally  assuring  him  of  their  fixed  determination  to  stand  by 
his  Majesty  at  the  risk  of  their  lives  and  property  against  aL 
rebellious  attempts. 


10 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


my  purpose.  The  means  proposed  by  the  noble  lord  for 
carrying  his  ideas  into  execution,  I  think,  indeed,  are  very 
indifferently  suited  to  th^  end ;  and  tliis  I  shall  endeavor 
to  show  ^  you  before  I  sit  down.  But,  for  the  present,  I 
take  my  ground  on  the  admitted  principle.  I  mean  to  give 
peace.  Peace  implies  reconciliation  ;  and  where  there  has 
been  a  material  dispute,  reconciliation  does  in  a  manner 
always  imply  concession  on  the  one  part  or  on  the  other. 
In  this  state  of  things  I  make  no  difficulty  in  affirming 
that  the  proposal  ought  to  originate  from  us.  Great  and 
acknowledged  force  is  not  impaired,  either  in  effect  or  in 
opinion,  by  an  unwillingness  to  exert  itself.  The  superior 
power  may  offer  peace  with  honor  and  with  safety.  Such 
an  offer  from  such  a  power  will  be  attributed  to  magnanim- 
ity. But  the  concessions  of  the  weak  are  the  concessions 
of  fear.  When  such  an  one  is  disarmed,  he  is  wholly  at  the 
mercy  of  his  superior ;  and  he  loses  forever  that  time  and 
those  chances,  which,  as  they  happen  to  all  men,  are  the 
strength  and  resources  of  all  inferior  power. 

14.  The  capital  leading  questions  on  which  you  must 
ThbDevel-  *^^s  ^^y  decide,  are  these  two  :  First,  whether 
?I14^12  y°^  ought  to  concede  ;  and  secondly;  what  your 
Whtther      concession  ought   to  be.     On    the   first   of  these 

you  ought  ,  °  .        i  t    i  • 

to  concede  f  questions  we   have   gained,  as  I  have  just    taken 

What  your       ,        *,.,  p       i  •  ^  i 

concession  the  liberty  01  observing  to  you,  some  ground. 
oug  0  e  g^^  J  ^^  sensible  that  a  good  deal  more  is  still 
to  be  done.  Indeed,  Sir,  to  enable  us  to  determine  both  on 
the  one  and  the  other  of  these  great  questions  with  a  firm 
and  precise  judgment,  I  think  it  may  be  necessary  to 
consider  distinctly  the  true  nature  and  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  object  which  we  have  before  us ;  because 
after  all  our  struggle,  whether  we  will  or  not,  we  must 
govern  America  according  to  that  nature  and  to  those  cir- 
cumstances, and  not  according  to  our  own  imaginations, 
nor  according  to  abstract   ideas  of   right  —  by  no  means 

*  I  shall  endeavor  to  show.    See  page  69. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       11 


according  to  mere  general  theories  of  government,  the 
resort  to  which  appears  to  nie,  in  our  present  situation,  no 
better  than  arrant  trifling.  I  shall  therefore  endeavor, 
with  your  leave,  to  lay  before  you  some  of  the  most  mate- 
rial of  these  circumstances  in  as  full  and  as  clear  a  manner 
as  I  am  able  to  state  them. 

15.  The  first  thing  we  have  to  consider  with  regard  tc 
the  nature  of  the  object  is  the  number  of  people   ^  ^,j^ 
in  the  colonies.     I  have  taken  for  some  years  a   "^^^  ^o" 

>>  OUGHT  TO 

good  deal  of  pains  on  that  point.  I  can  by  no  concede? 
calculation  iustify  myself  in  placing  the  number  popula- 
below  two  millions  of  inhabitants  of  our  own  Euro- 
pean blood  and  color,  besides  at  least  five  hundred  thousand 
others,  who  form  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  strength 
and  opulence  of  the  whole.  This,  Sir,  is,  I  believe,  about 
the  true  number.  There  is  no  occasion  to  exaggerate 
where  plain  truth  is  of  so  much  weight  and  importance. 
But  whether  I  put  the  present  numbers  too  high  or  too  low 
is  a  matter  of  little  moment.  Such  is  the  strength  with 
which  population  shoots  in  that  part  of  the  world,  that, 
state  the  numbers  as  high  as  we  will,  whilst  the  dispute 
continues,  the  exaggeration  ends.  Whilst  we  are  discuss- 
ing any  given  magnitude,  they  are  grown  to  it.  Whilst  we 
spend  our  time  in  deliberating  on  the  mode  of  governing 
two  millions,  we  shall  find  we  have  millions  more  to  man- 
age. Your  children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  tc 
manhood  than  they  spread  from  families  to  communities, 
and  from  villages  to  nations. 

16.  1  put  this  consideration  of  the  present  and  the  grow 
ing  numbers  in  the  front  of  our  deliberation,  because,  Sir, 
this  consideration  will  make  it  evident  to  a  blunter  dis- 
cernment than  yours,  that  no  partial,^  narrow,  contracted, 
pinched,  occasional  system  will  be  at  all  suitable  to  such 

*  partial  system.  Observe  how  the  author  characterizea 
Parliament's  system.  He  desired  to  give  permanent  tranquil' 
lity. 


12 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


i 


dttstribs, 
1.  Com- 

MKRGE* 


an  object.  It  will  show  you  that  it  is  not  to  be  considered 
as  one  of  those  minima  ^  whidi  are  out  of  the  eye  and 
consideration  of  the  law ;  not  a  paltry  excrescence  of  the 
state  ;  not  a  mean  dependant,  who  may  be  neglected  with 
little  damage  and  provoked  with  little  danger.  It  will 
prove  that  some  degree  of  care  and  caution  is  required  in 
the  handling  such  an  object ;  it  will  show  that  you  ought 
not,  in  reason  to  trifle  with  so  large  a  mass  of  the  interests 
and  feelings  of  the  human  race.  You  could  at  no  time  do 
so  without  guilt ;  and  be  assured  you  will  not  be  able  to 
do  it  long  with  impunity. 

17.  But  the  population  of  this  country,  the  great  and 
n.  TmtiN-   growing    population,    though   a   very   important 

consideration,  will  lose  much  of  its  weight  it 
not  combined  with  other  circumstances.  The 
commerce  of  your  colonies  is  out  of  all  proportion  beyond 
the  numbers  of  the  people.  This  ground  of  their  com- 
merce indeed  has  been  trod  ^  some  days  ago,  and  with  great 
ability,  by  a  distinguished  person  at  your  bar.  This  gentle- 
man,^ after  thirty-five  years  —  it  is  so  long  since  he  first 
appeared  at  the  same  place  to  plead  for  the  commerce  of 
Great  Britain  —  has  come  again  before  you  to  plead  the  same 
cause,  without  any  other  effect  of  time,  than  that  to  the  fire 
of  imagination  and  extent  of  erudition  which  even  then 
marked  him  as  one  of  the  first  literary  characters  of  his 
age,  he  has  added  a  consummate  knowledge  in  the  com- 
mercial interest  of  his  country,  formed  by  a  long  course  of 
enlightened  and  discriminating  experience. 

18.  Sir,  I  should  be  inexcusable  in  coming  after  such  e 
person  with  any  detail,  if  a  great  part  of  the  members  wh<' 

^  minima  =  things  of  trifling  consequence. 

^  ground  has  .  ,  been  trod  =  the  matter  has  been  treate«i 
or  presented. 

'  this  gentleman^  Mr.  Glover  —  author  of  the  two  epics 
Leonidas  and  the  Athemad,  and  the  tragedies  Boadicea  and 
Medea 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       13 

now  fill  the  House  had  not  the  misfortune  to  be  absent 
when  he  appeared  at  your  bar.  Besides,  Sir,  I  propose  to 
take  the  matter  at  periods  of  time  somewhat  different  from 
his.  There  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  a  point  of  view  from 
whence,  if  you  will  look  at  the  subject,  it  is  impossible  that 
it  should  not  make  an  impression  upon  you. 

19.  I  have  in  my  hand  two  accounts ;  one  a  comparative 
state  ^  of  the  export  trade  of  Engla  id  to  its  colonies,  as  it 
stood  in  the  year  1704,  and  as  ii  stood  in  the  year  1772  ; 
the  other  a  state  of  the  export  trade  of  this  country  to  its 
colonies  alone,  as  it  stood  in  1772,  compared  with  the  wholo 
trade  of  England  to  all  parts  of  the  world  (the  colonies 
included)  in  the  year  1704.  They  are  from  good  vouchers ; 
the  latter  period  from  the  accounts  on  your  table,  the  ear 
lier  from  an  original  manuscript  of  Davenant,  who  first 
established  the  Inspector-General's  office,  which  has  been 
ever  since  his  time  so  abundant  a  source  of  Parliamentary 
information. 

20.  The  export  trade  to  the  colonies  consists  of  three 
great  branches :  the  Afiican  —  which,  terminating  almost 
wholly  in  the  colonies,  must  be  put  to  the  account  of  their 
commerce,  —  the  West  Indian,  and  the  North  American. 
All  these  are  so  interwoven  that  the  attempt  to  separate 
them  would  tear  to  pieces  the  contexture  of  the  whole ; 
and,  if  not  entirely  destroy,  would  very  much  depreciate 
the  value  of  all  the  parts.  I  therefore  consider  these  three 
denominations  to  be,  what  in  effect  they  are,  one  trade. 

21.  The  trade  to  the  colonies,  taken  on  the  export  side, 
at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  that  is,  in  the  year  1704, 
stoodthus:  — 

Exports  to  North  America  and  the  West  Indies       £483,265 
To  Africa 86,665 


£569,930 


'  comparative  state  =  statement. 


14 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


22.  In  the  year  1772,  which  I  take  as  a  middle  year 
between  the  highest  and  lowest  of  those  lately  laid  on  your 
table,  the  account  was  as  follows  :  — 


To  North  America  and  the  West  Indies     .     . 

To  Africa 

To  which,  if  you  add  the  export  trade  from 
Scotland,  which  had  iu  1704  no  existence     . 


£4,791,734 
866,398 

364,000 
£6,022,132 


m 


23.  From  five  hundred  and  odd  thousand,  it  has  grown 
to  six  millions.  It  has  increased  no  less  than  twelve-fold. 
This  is  the  state  of  the  colony  trade  as  compared  with 
itself  at  these  two  periods  within  this  century ;  —  and  thii 
is  matter  for  meditation.  But  this  is  not  all.  Examine 
my  second  account.  See  how  the  export  trade  to  the  colo- 
nies alone  in  1772  stood  in  the  other  point  of  view ;  that 
is,  as  compared  to  the  whole  trade  of  England  in  1704 :  — 

The  whole  export  trade  of  England,  including 

that  to  the  colonies,  in  1704       £6,509,000 

Export  to  the  colonies  alone,  iu  1772      .     .    .       6,024,000 

Difference,        £485,000 

24.  The  trade  with  America  alone  is  now  within  less 
than  £500,000  of  being  equal  to  what  this  great  commercial 
nation,  England,  carried  on  at  the  beginning  of  this  century 
with  the  whole  world  !  If  I  had  taken  the  largest  year  of 
those  on  your  table,  it  would  rather  have  exceeded.  But, 
it  will  be  said,  is  not  this  American  trade  an  unnatural 
protuberance,  that  has  drawn  the  juices  from  the  rest  of 
the  body?  The  reverse.  It  is  the  very  food  that  has 
nourished  every  other  part  into  its  present  magnitude. 
Our  general  trade  has  been  greatly  augmented,  and  aug- 
mented more  or  less  in  almost  every  part  to  which  it  ever 
extended ;  but  with  this  material  difference,  that  of  the  six 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       15 

millions  which  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  constituted 
the  whole  mass  of  our  export  commerce,  the  colony  trade 
was  but  one-twelfth  part ;  it  is  now  (as  a  part  of  sixteen 
millions)  considerably  more  than  a  third  of  the  whole. 
This  is  the  relative  proportion  of  the  importance  of  the 
colonies  at  these  two  periods  ;  and  all  reasoning  concerning 
our  mode  of  treating  them  must  have  this  proportion  as  its 
basis ;  or  it  is  a  reasoning  weak,  rotten,  and  sophistical. 

25.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  prevail  on  myself  to  hurry 
over  this  great  consideration.  It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.' 
We  stand  where  we  have  an  immense  view  of  what  is,  and 
what  is  past.  Clouds,  indeed,  and  darkness,  rest  upon  the 
future.  Let  us,  however,  before  we  descend  from  this 
noble  eminence,  reflect  that  this  growth  of  our  national 
prosperity  has  happened  within  the  short  period  of  the  life 
of  man.  It  has  happened  within  sixty-eight  years.  There 
are  those  alive  whose  memory  might  touch  the  two  extrem- 
ities. For  instance,  my  Lord  Bathurst  might  remember  all 
the  stages  of  the  progress.  He  was  in  1704  of  an  age  at 
least  to  be  made  to  comprehend  such  tilings.  He  was  then 
old  enough  acta  parentum  jam  legere,  et  quce  sit  poterit 
cognoscere  virtus.'^  Suppose,  Sir,  that  the  angel  of  this 
auspicious  youth,  foreseeing  the  many  virtues  which  made 
him  one  of  the  most  amiable,  as  he  is  one  of  the  most 
fortunate,  men  of  his  age,  had  opened  to  him  in  vision  that 
when  in  the  fourth  generation"  the  third  Prince  of  the 
House  of  Brunswick  had  sat  twelve  years  on  the  throne  of 
that  nation  which,  by  the  happy  issue  of  moderate  and 
healing  counsels,  was  to  be  made  Great  Britain,*  he  should 

*  It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.     See  Mark  ix.  5. 

*  acta  parentum  jana  legere,  etc.  =  "  to  read  the  deeds  of 
his  forefathers  and  to  know  what  manly  worth  is."  From 
Virgil's  Fourth  Eclogue,  26,  27. 

'  fourth  generation ;  George  III.  was  the  grandson  of 
George  IL 

^  made  Great  Britain ;  Scotland  was  united  with  England 
in  1707. 


16 


'    EDMUND  BURKE. 


ill 


geo  his  son,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  turn  back  the 
current  of  hereditary  dignity  to  its  fountain,  and  raise  him 
to  a  higher  rank  *  of  peerage,  whilst  he  enriched  the  family 
with  a  new  one  —  if,  amidst  these  bright  and  happy  scenes 
of  domestic  honor  and  prosperity,  that  angel  should  have 
drawn  up  the  curtain,  and  unfolded  the  rising  glories  of  his 
country,  and,  whilst  he  was  gazing  with  admiration  on  the 
then  commercial  grandeur  of  England,  the  genius  should 
point  out  to  him  a  little  speck,  scarcely  visible  in  the  mass 
of  the  national  interest,  a  small  seminal  principle,  rather 
than  a  formed  body,  and  should  tell  him :  "  Young  man, 
there  is  America  —  which  at  this  day  serves  for  little  more 
than  to  amuse  you  with  stories  of  savage  men,  and  uncouth 
manners ;  yet  shall,  before  you  taste  of  death,  show  itself 
equal  to  the  whole  of  that  commerce  which  now  attracts 
the  envy  of  the  world.  Whatever  England  has  been  grow- 
ing to  by  a  progressive  increase  of  improvement,  brought  in 
by  varieties  of  people,  by  succession  of  civilizing  conquests 
and  civilizing  settlements  in  a  series  of  seventeen  hundred 
years,  you  shall  see  as  much  added  to  her  by  America  in 
the  course  of  a  single  life !  "  If  this  state  of  his  country 
had  been  foretold  to  him,  would  it  not  require  all  the  san- 
guine credulity  of  youth,  and  all  the  fervid  glow  of  enthu- 
siasm, to  make  him  believe  it?  Fortunate  man,  he  has 
lived  to  see  it!  Fortunate,  indeed,  if  he  lives  to  see  no- 
thing that  shall  vary  the  prospect,  and  cloud  the  setting 
of  his  day  ! 

26.  E^  me,  Sir,  if  turning  from  such  thoughts  1. 

resup^'  omparative  view  once  more.     You  have  seen 

it  (  fcC  scale  ;  look  at  it  on  a  small  one.     I  will  point 

out  ^our  attention  a  particular  instance  of  it  in  the  single 
province  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  year  1704  that  province 
called  for  £11,459  in  value  of  your  commodities,  native 
and  foreign.  This  was  the  whole.  What  did  it  demand 
in  1772  ?     Why,  nearly  fifty  times  as  much ;  for  in  that 

t  hl|i;her  rank  ;  Bathurst  was  made  Earl  in  1772- 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       17 

year  the  export  to  Pennsylvania  was  £507,909,  nearly 
equal  to  the  export  to  all  the  colonies  togethei'  iit  the  first 
period. 

27.  I  choose,  Sir,  to  enter  into  these  minute  and  partic- 
ular details,  because  generalities,  which  in  all  other  cases 
are  apt  to  heighten  and  raise  the  subject,  have  here  a 
tendency  to  sink  it.  When  we  speak  of  the  commerce 
with  our  colonies,  fiction  lags  after  truth, ^  invention  is 
unfruitful,  and  imagination  cold  and  barren. 

28.  So  far,  Sir,  as  to  the  importance  of  tht  object,  in 
view  of  its  commerce,  as  concerned  in  the  exports  from 
England.  If  I  were  to  detail  the  imports,  I  could  show 
how  many  enjoyments  they  procure  which  deceive  2  the 
burthen  of  life  ;  how  many  materials  which  invigorate  the 
springs  of  national  industry,  and  extend  and  animate  every 
part  of  our  foreign  and  domestic  counnerce.  This  would 
be  a  curious  subject  indeed ;  but  I  must  prescribe  bounds 
to  myself  in  a  matter  so  vast  and  various. 

29.  I  pass,  therefore,  to  the  colonies  in  another  point  of 
view,  their  agriculture.  This  they  have  prose-  2.  Agei- 
cuted  with  such  a  si)irit,  that  besides  feeding  plen-  cultubb. 
tifuUy  their  own  growing  multitude,  their  annual  export  of 
grain,  comprehending  rice,  has  some  years  ago  exceeded  a 
million  in  value.  Of  their  last  harvest  I  am  persuaded 
they  will  export  much  more.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
century  some  of  these  colonies  imported  corn "  from  the 
mother  country.  For  some  time  past  the  Old  World  has 
been  fed  from  the  New.  The  scarcity  which  you  have  felt 
would  have  been  a  desolating  famine,  if  this  child  of  youi 
old  age,  with  a  true  filial  piety,  with  a  Roman  charity,  had 

^  fiction  lags  after  truth  —  three  clauses  in  which  the 
author  amplifies  and  enforces  the  idea  that  imagination  cannot 
suggest  anything  more  wonderful  than  the  real  facts  of  the 
case. 

*  deceive  =  beguile.  . 

•  corn  =  grain-  i   ' 


18 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


I    -A 


3.  Fish- 
eries. 


not  put  the  full  breast  ^  of  its  youthful  exuberance  to  tht 
mouth  of  its  exhausted  parent. 

30.  As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have  drawn  from 
the  sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that  matter 
fully  opened  at  your  bar.  You  surely  thought 
those  acquisitions  of  value,  for  they  seemed  even  to  excite 
your  envy ;  and  yet  the  spirit  by  which  that  enterprising 
employment  has  been  exercised  ought  rather,  in  my  opin- 
ion, to  have  raised  your  esteem  and  admiration.  And 
pray,  Sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal  to  it  ?  Pass  by  the 
other  parts,  and  look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of 
New  England  have  of  late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery. 
Whilst  we  follow  them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  ^  of 
ice,  and  behold  them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen 
recesses  of  Hudson's  Bay  and  Davis's  Straits,  whilst  we 
are  looking  for  them  beneath  the  arctic  circle,  we  hear  that 
they  have  pierced  into  the  opi)osite  region  of  polar  cold, 
that  they  are  at  the  antipodes,  and  engaged  under  the 
frozen  Serpent '  of  the  south.  Falkland  Island,*  which 
seemed  too  remote  and  romantic  an  object  for  the  grasj)  of 
national  ambition,  is  but  a  stage  and  resting-place  in  the 
progress  of  their  victorious  industry.  Nor  is  the  equinoc- 
tial heat  more  discouraging  to  them  than  the  accumulated 
winter  of  both  the  pcles.     We  know  that  whilst  some  of 

1  Put  the  full  breast  ;  an  allusion  to  the  story  of  the 
Roman,  who,  condemned  to  death  by  starvation,  was  nourished 
by  his  daughter  from  her  own  breast. 

2  tumbling  mountains  ;  a  picturesque  epithet  of  the  authoi 
referring  to  a  phenomenon  seen  occasionally  by  sailors;  i.  e., 
icebergs  having  melted  away  under  water,  or  being  honeycombed 
by  it,  become  heavier  above  than  below  and  hence  "  tumble  " 
over. 

'  frozen  Serpent  of  the  South  ;  a  constellation  of  the  ant- 
arctic region.  The  word  "  frozen "  is  Burke's  picturesque 
touch. 

*  Fg^lkland  l8le.nd.  250  miles  northeast  of  Terra  del 
Puego 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       19 

them  draw  the  line  and  strike  the  harpoon  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  others  run  the  longitude  ^  and  pur  rae  their 
gigantic  game  along  the  coast  of  Brazil.  No  sea  but  what 
is  vexed  ^  by  their  fisheries ;  no  climate  that  is  not  witness 
to  their  toils.  Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland,  noi 
the  activity  of  France,  nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity 
of  English  enterprise  ever  carried  this  most  perilous  mode 
of  hardy  industry  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been 
pushed  by  this  recent  people ;  a  people  who  are  still,  as  it 
were,  but  in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the 
bone  of  manhood.  When  I  contemplate  these  things ; 
when  I  know  that  the  colonies  in  general  owe  little  or 
nothing  to  any  care  of  ours,  and  that  they  are  not  squeezed 
into  this  happy  form  by  the  constraints  of  watchful  and 
suspicious  government,  but  that,  through  a  wise  and  salu- 
tary neglect,  a  generous  nature  has  been  siuffered  to  take 
her  own  way  to  perfection ;  when  I  reflect  upon  these 
effects,  when  I  see  how  profitable  they  have  been  co  us,  I 
feel  all  the  pride  of  power  sink,  and  all  presumption  in  the 
wisdom  of  human  contrivances  melt  and  die  away  within 
rae.  My  rigor  relents.  I  pardon  something  to  the  spirit 
of  liberty. 

31.  I  am  sensible,  Sir,  that  all  which  I  have  asserted  ip 
my  detail  is  admitted  in  the  gross  ;  but  that  quite  a  differ 
ent  conclusion  is  drawn  from  it.     America,  gen- 
tlemen   say.  is  a  noble  object.     It  is  an  object  tions  to 
well  worth  fighting  for.     Certainly  it  is,  if  fight-  mbn'^  of 
ing  a  people  be  the  best  way  of  gaining  them. 
Gentlemen  in  this  respect  will  be  led  to  their  choice  ot 
means  by  their  complexions  ®  and  their  habits.     Those  who 
understand  the  military  art  will  of  course  have  some  pre- 

1  run  the  longitude ;  an  expression  the  precise  meaning  of 
which,  as  used  by  Burke,  is  difficult  to  determine.  It  is  not 
current  among  nautical  men  of  this  day. 

2  vexed  =  agitated. 

'  complexions  =  temperament 


20  EDMUND  BURKE. 

dilection  for  it.  Those  who  wield  the  thunder  of  the  state 
may  have  more  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  arms.  But  I 
confess,  possibly  for  want  of  this  knowledge,  my  opinion  is 
much  more  in  favor  of  prudent  management  than  of  force  ; 
considering  force  not  as  an  odious,  but  a  feeble  instrument 
for  preserving  a  people  so  numerous,  so  active,  so  growing, 
80  spirited  as  this,  in  a  profitable  and  subordinate  connec- 
tion with  us. 

32.  First,  Sir,  permit  me  to  observe  that  the  use  of 
force  alone  is  but  temjporary.  It  may  subdue  for  a 
moment,  but  it  does  not  remove  the  nec.essity  of  subduing 
again ;  and  a  nation  is  not  governed  which  is  perpetually 
to  be  conquered. 

33.  My  next  objection  is  its  uncertainty.  Terror  is  not 
always  th^  effect  of  force,  and  an  armament  is  not  a  vic- 
tory. If  you  do  not  succeed,  you  are  without  resource; 
for,  conciliation  failing,  force  remains ;  but,  force  failing, 
no  further  hope  of  reconciliation  is  left.  Power  and 
authority  are  sometimes  bought  by  kindness  ;  but  they  can 
never  be  begged  as  alms  by  an  impoverished  and  defeated 
violence. 

34.  A  further  objection  to  force  is,  that  you  impair  the 
object  by  your  very  endeavors  to  preserve  it.  The  thing 
you  fought  for  is  not  the  thing  which  you  recover ;  but 
depreciated,  sunk,  wasted,  and  consumed  in  the  contest. 
Nothing  less  will  content  me  than  whole  America.  I  do 
not  choose  to  consume  its  strength  along  with  our  own, 
because  in  ^ll  parts  it  is  the  British  strength  that  I  con- 
sume. I  do  not  choose  to  be  caught  by  a  foreign  enemy 
at  the  end  of  this  exhausting  conflict ;  and  still  less  in  the 
midst  of  it.  I  may  escape ;  but  I  can  make  no  insurance 
Rofainst  such  an  event.  Let  me  add,  that  I  do  not  choose 
wholly  to  break  the  American  spirit;  because  it  is  the 
apirit  that  has  made  the  country. 

35.  Lastly,  we  have  no  sort  of  experience  in  favor  of 
force  as  an  instrument  in  the  rule  of  our  colonics.     Their 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       21 

growth  and  their  utility  has  been  owing  to  methods  alto- 
gether different.  Our  ancient  indulgence  has  been  said  to 
be  pursued  to  a  fault.  It  may  be  so.  But  we  know,  if 
feeling  is  evidence,  that  our  fault  was  more  tolerable  than 
our  attempt  to  mend  it ;  and  our  sin  far  more  salutary  than 
our  penitence. 

36.  These,  Sir,  are  my  reasons  for  not  entertaining  that 
high  opinion  of  untried  force  by  which  many  gentlemen 
for  whose    sentiments   in  other  particulars   I   have   great 
respect,  seem  to  be  so  greatly  captivated.     But  there  is  still 
behind  a  third  consideration  concerning  this  object  which 
serves   to  determine  my  opinion  on   the  sort  of  m  -pg^ 
policy  which  ought  to  be  pursued  in  the  manage-  J^d^c^h^h. 
ment  of  America,  even  more  than  its  population   actkr  or 
and  its  commerce  —  I  mean  its  temper  and  char-  pm. 
acter. 

37.  In  this  character  of  the  Americans,  a  love  of  free- 
dom is  the  predominating  feature  which  marks  and  distin- 
guishes the  whole ;  and  as  an  ardent  is  always  a  jealous 
affection,  your  colonies  become  suspicious,  restive,  aud 
untractable  whenever  they  see  the  least  attempt  to  wrest 
from  them  by  force,  or  shuffle  from  them  by  chicane,  what 
they  think  the  only  advantage  worth  living  for.  Thia 
fierce  spirit  of  liberty  is  stronger  in  the  English  colonies 
])robably  than  in  any  other  people  of  the  earth,  and  this 
from  a  great  variety  of  powerful  causes  ;  which,  to  under- 
stand the  true  temper  of  their  minds  and  the  direction 
whicli  this  spirit  takes,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  lay  open 
somewhat  more  largely. 

38.  First,  the  people  of  the  colonies  are  descendants  of 

Ensrlishmen.      England,    Sir,  is    a  nation    which 

.,",    T    1  t     p  1  1         1     1  !•  Descent. 

stul,  I  hope,  respects,  and  tormerly  adored,  her 
freedom.      Tlie   colonists  emigrated    from  you  when    this 
part  of  your  character  ^  was  most  predominant ;  and  they 

^  part  of  your  character,  i.  e.,  in  the  times  leading  up  to 
the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth. 


22 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


took  this  bias  and  direction  the  moment  they  parted  from 
your  hands.  They  are  therefore  not  only  devoted  to  lib- 
erty, but  to  liberty  according  to  English  ideas,  and  on 
English  principles.  Abstract  liberty,  like  other  mere  ab- 
stractions, is  not  to  be  found.  Liberty  inlieres  in  some 
sensible  object ;  *  and  every  nation  has  formed  to  itself 
some  favorite  point,  which  by  way  of  eminence  becomes  the 
criterion  of  their  happiness.  It  happened,  you  know.  Sir, 
that  the  great  contests  for  freedom  in  this  country  were 
from  the  earliest  times  chiefly  upon  the  question  of  taxing. 
Most  of  the  contests  in  the  ancient  commonwealths  turned 
primarily  on  the  right  of  election  of  magistrates  ;  or  on  the 
balance  among  the  several  orders  of  the  state.  The  ques- 
tion of  money  was  not  with  them  so  immediate.  But  in 
England  it  was  otherwise.  On  this  point  of  taxes  the 
ablest  pens,  and  most  eloquent  tongues,  have  been  exer- 
cised ;  the  greatest  spirits  have  acted  and  suffered.  In 
order  to  give  the  fullest  satisfaction  concerning  the  impor- 
tance of  this  point,  it  was  not  only  necessary  for  those  who 
in  argument  defended  the  excellence  of  the  English  Con- 
stitution to  insist  on  this  privilege  of  granting  money  as  a 
dry  point  of  fact,  and  to  prove  that  the  right  had  been 
acknowledged  in  ancient  parchments  and  blind  usages  to 
reside  in  a  certain  body  called  a  House  of  Commons. 
They  went  much  farther ;  they  attempted  to  prove,  and 
they  succeeded,  that  in  theory  it  ought  to  be  so,  from  the 
particular  nature  of  a  House  of  Commons  as  an  immediate 
representative  of  the  people,  whether  the  old  records  had 
delivered  this  oracle  or  not.  They  took  infinite  pains  to 
inculcate,  as  a  fundamental  principle,  that  in  all  monarchies 
the  people  must  in  effect  themselves,  mediately  or  immedi- 
ately, possess  the  power  of  granting  their  own  money,  or 
no  shadow  of  liberty  can  subsist.  The  colonies  draw  from 
you,  as  with  their   life-blood,   these   ideas  and   principles. 

^sensible  object  =  an  external   object, — an   object   that 
may  be  perceived  by  the  senses. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       23 

fheir  love  of  liberty,  as  with  you,  fixed  and  attached  on 
Lhis  specific  point  of  taxing.  Liberty  might  be  safe,  or 
might  be  endangered,  in  twenty  other  particulars,  without 
their  being  much  pleased  or  alarmed.  Here  they  felt  its 
pulse ;  and  as  they  found  that  beat,  they  thought  them- 
selves sick  or  sound.  I  do  not  say  whether  they  were  right 
or  wrong  in  applying  your  general  arguments  to  their  own 
case.  It  is  not  easy,  indeed,  to  make  a  monopoly  of  the- 
orems and  corollaries.  The  fact  is,  that  they  did  thus 
apply  those  general  arguments ;  and  your  mode  of  govern- 
ing them,  whether  through  lenity  or  indolence,  through 
wisdom  or  mistake,  confirmed  them  in  the  imagination  that 
they,  as  well  as  you,  had  an  interest  in  these  commor. 
principles. 

39.  They  were  further  confirmed  in  this  pleasing  error 
bv  the  form  of  their  provincial  legislative  assem- 

,  , .  rr^i     •  11-  2.  Form  of 

blies.  Their  governments  are  popular*  m  a  Govern, 
high  degree  ;  some  are  merely  popular ;  in  all, 
the  popular  representative  is  the  most  weighty ;  and  this 
share  of  the  people  in  their  ordinary  government  never 
fails  to  inspire  them  with  lofty  sentiments,  and  with  a 
strong  aversion  from  ^  whatever  tends  to  deprive  them  of 
their  chief  importance. 

40.  If  anything  were  wanting  to  this  necessary  operation 

of  the  form  of  government,  relirjion  would  have 

1   i.        ir     ^       o   r    •  1  3-  Religion 

given   it  a  complete  ettect.     Keligion,  always  a  mthe 

.    ,         ,.  .       ,1  •  1      •  North. 

principle  ot  energy,  in  this  new  people  is  no  way 
worn  out  or  impaired  ;  and  their  mode  of  professing  it  is 
also  one  main  cause  of  this  free  spirit.  The  people  are 
Protestants ;  and  of  that  kind  which  is  the  most  adverse 
to  all  implicit  submission  of  mind  and  opinion.  This  is  a 
persuasion  not  only  favorable  to  liberty,  but  built  upon  it. 
I  do  not  think,  Sir,  that  the  reason  of  this  averseness  in 

^  governments  are  popular,  i.  e.,  controlled  by  the  people. 
^  aversion  fro:n.     A  precise  etymological  form  which  wa^ 
once  insisted  on- 


r^ 


!     i 


•  wli 


:  iii ;  !  24  EDMUND  BURKE. 

I  i  I :  I  the  dissenting  churches  from  all  that  looks  like  absolute 

■  I  government   is   so   much   to  be  sought   in   their  religious 

i  tenets,  as  in  their   history.      Every  one  knows   that   the 

Roman  Catholic  religion  is  at  least  coeval  with  most  of  the 
governments  where  it  prevails ;  that  it  has  generally  gone 
hand  in  hand  with  them,  and  received  great  favor  and 
every  kind  of  support  from  authority.  The  Church  of 
III  j  England  too  was  formed  from  her  cradle  under  the  nursing 

care  of  regular  government.  But  the  dissenting  interests 
have  sprung  up  in  direct  opposition  to  all  the  ordinary 
powers  of  the  world,  and  could  justify  that  opposition  only 
on  a  strong  claim  to  natural  liberty.  Their  very  existence 
depended  on  the  powerful  and  unremitted  assertion  of  that 
claim.  All  Protestantism,  even  the  most  cold  and  passive, 
is  a  sort  of  dissent.  But  the  religion  most  prevalent  in 
our  northern  colonies  is  a  refinement  on  the  principle  of 
resistance ;  it  is  the  dissidence  of  dissent,^  and  the  pro- 
testantism of  the  Protestant  religion.  This  religion,  under 
a  variety  of  denominations  agreeing  in  nothing  but  in  the 
communion  of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  is  predominant  in  most 
of  the  northern  provinces,  where  the  Clmrch  of  England, 
notwdthstanding  its  legal  rights,  is  in  reality  no  more  than 
a  sort  of  private  sect,  not  composing  most  probably  the 
tenth  of  the  people.  The  colonists  left  England  when 
this  spirit  was  high,  and  in  the  emigrants  was  the  highest 
of  all ;  and  even  that  stream  of  foreigners  which  has  been 
constantly  flowing  into  these  colonies  has,  for  the  greatest 
part,  been  composed  of  dissenters  from  the  establishments 
of  their  several  countries,  who  have  brought  with  them  a 
temper  and  character  far  from  alien  to  that  of  the  people 
with  whom  they  mixed. 

41.  Sir,  I  can  perceive  by  their  manner  that  some  gen- 
tlemen object  to  the  latitude  of  tiiis  description^  because  in 
the  southern  colonies  the  Church  of  England  forms  a  large 

^  dissidence  of  dissent  =  dissent  of  dissent;  dissent  carried 
to  its  utmost. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       25 


body,  and  has  a  regular  esta1)Usliment.  It  is  certainly  true. 
There  is,  however,  a  circumstance  attending  these  4  r^^ 
colonies  which,  in  my  opinion,  fully  counterbal-  g^\"fun 
ances  this  difference,  and  makes  the  spirit  of  lib-  ti'^  South, 
erty  still  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those  to  the 
northward.  It  is  that  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  they 
have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves.  Where  this  is  the  case  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  those  who  are  fi'ee  are  by  far  the 
most  proud  and  jealous  of  their  freedom.  Freedom  is  to 
them  not  only  an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind  of  rank  and  privi- 
lege. Not  seeing  there,  that  freedom,  as  in  countries  where 
it  is  a  common  blessing  and  as  broad  and  general  as  the 
air,  may  be  united  with  much  abject  toil,  with  great  misery, 
with  all  the  exterior  of  servitude  ;  liberty  looks,  amongst 
them,  like  something  that  is  more  noble  and  liberal.  I 
dci  not  mean,  Sir,  to  commend  the  superior  morality  of  this 
sentiment,  which  has  at  least  as  much  pride  as  virtue  in  it ; 
but  I  cannot  alter  the  nature  of  man.  The  fact  is  so  ; 
and  these  people  of  the  southern  colonies  are  much  more 
strongly,  and  with  an  higher  and  more  stubborn  spirit,  at- 
tached to  liberty  than  those  to  the  northward.  Such  were 
all  the  ancient  commonwealths ;  such  were  our  Gothic  an 
cestors ;  such  in  our  days  were  the  Poles  ;  and  such  will  be 
all  masters  of  slaves,  who  are  not  slaves  themselves.  In 
such  a  people  the  haughtiness  of  domination  '•o  nbines  with 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and  renders  it  invincible. 

42.  Permit  me.  Sir,  to  add  another  circumstance  in  our 
colonies  which  contributes  no  mean  part  towards  5  Educa- 
the  growth  and  effect  of  this  untractable  spirit.  *'°"' 
I  mean  their  education.  In  no  country  perhaps  in  the 
world  is  the  law  so  general  a  study.  The  profession  itself 
is  numerous  and  powerful ;  and  in  most  provinces  it  takes 
the  lead.  The  greater  number  of  the  deputies  sent  to  the 
Congress  were  lawyers.  But  all  who  read,  and  most  do 
read,  endeavor  to  obtain  some  smattering  in  that  science. 
I  have  been  told  by  an    eminent   bookseller,  that  in  no 


26 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


Ill 


!■   rA 


■:  ■!' 


it!  \ 

I 


branch  of  his  business,  after  tracts  of  popular  devotion, 
were  so  many  books  as  those  on  the  law  exported  to  the 
Plantations.  The  colonists  haye  now  fallen  into  the  way 
of  printing  them  for  their  own  use.  I  hear  that  they  have 
sold  nearly  as  many  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries  in 
America  as  in  England.  General  Gage  marks  out  this  dis- 
position very  particularly  in  a  letter  on  your  table.  He 
states  that  all  the  people  in  his  government  are  lawyer's,  or 
smatterers  in  law ;  and  that  in  Boston  they  have  been  ena- 
bled, by  successful  chicane,^  wholly  to  evade  many  parts  of 
one  of  your  cai)ital  penal  constitutions.  The  smartness 
of  debate  will  say  that  this  knowledge  ought  to  teach  them 
more  clearly  the  rights  of  legislature,  their  obligations  to 
obedience,  and  the  penalties  of  rebellion.  All  this  is 
mighty  well.  But  my  honorable  and  learned  friend  ^  on 
the  floor,  who  condescends  to  mark  what  I  say  for  animad- 
version, will  disdain  that  ground.  He  has  heard,  as  well 
as  I,  that  when  great  honors  and  great  emoluments  do  not 
win  over  this  knowledge  to  the  service  of  the  state,  it  is  a 
formidable  adversary  to  government.  If  the  spirit  be  not 
tamed  and  broken  by  these  happy  methods,  it  is  stubborn 
and  litigious.  Aheunt  studia  in  mores}  This  study  ren- 
ders men  acute,  inquisitive,  dexterous,  prompt  in  attack, 
ready  in  defence,  full  of  resources.  In  other  countries,  the 
people,  more  simple,  and  of  a  less  mercurial  cast,  judge  of 

1  by  successful  chicane,  i.  e.,  trickery,  sharp  practice. 
When  the  order  was  issued  forbidding  the  holding  of  town  meet- 
ings after  August,  1774,  the  last  meeting  held  prior  to  that  date 
was  adjourned  to  meet  at  a  definite  time.  By  the  rule  of  Par- 
liamentary practice,  an  adjourned  meeting  is  a  continuation 
of  the  original  meeting;  hence  by  this  legal  fiction  these  ad- 
journed meetings  could  not  be  regarded  as  called  after  August 
1,  1774,  and  were  therefore  not  illegal. 

2  learned  friend  ;  Attorney-General  Thurlow  —  who  was 
making  notes  of  points  on  Burke's  Speech. 

'  abeunt  studia  in  mores  ;  a  quotation  from  Ovid  which, 
freely  translated,  means  "  pursuits  pass  into  character," 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      27 


an  ill  principle  in  government  only  by  an  actual  grievance  ; 
here  they  anticipate  the  evil,  and  judge  of  the  pressure  of 
the  grievance  by  the  badness  of  the  principle.  They  augur 
misgovernment  at  a  distance,  and  snuff  the  approach  of 
tyranny  in  every  tainted  breeze. 

43.  The  last  cause  of  this  disobedient  spirit  in  the  colo- 
nies is  hardly  less  powerful  than  the  rest,  as  it  is  g  Remote 
not  merely  moral,  but  laid  deep  in  the  natural  °®^*- 
constitution  of  things.  Three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  lie 
between  you  and  them.  No  contrivance  can  prevent  the 
effect  of  this  distance  in  weakening  government.  Seas  roll, 
and  months  pass,  between  the  order  and  the  execution ;  and 
the  want  of  a  speedy  explanation  of  a  single  point  is  enough 
to  defeat  a  whole  system.  You  have,  indeed,  winged  min- 
isters of  vengeance,  who  carry  your  bolts  in  their  pounces  ^ 
to  the  remotest  verge  of  the  sea.  But  there  a  power  steps 
in  that  limits  the  arrogance  of  raging  passions  and  furious 
elements,  and  says,  So  far  shalt  thou  go^  and  no  farther. 
Who  are  you,  that  you  should  fret  and  rage,  and  bite  the 
chains  of  nature  ?  Nothing  worse  happens  to  you  than 
does  to  all  nations  who  have  extensive  empire  ;  and  it  hap- 
pens in  all  the  forms  into  which  empire  can  be  thrown.  In 
large  bodies  the  circulation  of  power  must  be  less  vigorous 
at  the  extremities.  Nature  has  said  it.  The  Turk  cannot 
govern  Egypt  and  Arabia  and  Kurdistan  as  he  governs 
Thrace ;  nor  has  he  the  same  dominion  in  Crimea  and 
Algiers  which  he  has  at  Brusa  and  Smyrna.  Despotism 
itself  is  obliged  to  truck  and  huckster.  The  Sultan  gets 
such  obedience  as  he  can.  He  governs  with  a  loose  rein, 
that  he  may  govern  at  all ;  and  the  whole  of  the  force  and 
vigor  of  his  authority  in  his  centre  is  derived  from  a  pru- 
dent relaxation  in  all  his  borders.  Spain,  in  her  provinces, 
is,  perhaps,  not  so  well  obeyed  as  you  are  in  yours.  She 
complies,  too ;  she  submits  ;  she  watches  times.  This  is 
the  immutable  condition,  the  eternal  law  of  extensive  and 
detached  empire. 

1  pounces  =  claws  or  talons. 


28 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


i^' 


44.  Then,  Sir,  from  these  six  capital  sources  —  of  de- 
acent,  of  form  of  government,  of  religion  in  the  northern 
provinces,  of  manners  in  the  -southern,  of  education,  of  the 
remoteness  of  situation  from  tlie  first  mover  of  government 
—  from  all  these  causes  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  has  grown 
up.  It  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  people  in  your 
colonies,  and  increased  with  the  increase  of  their  wealth  ;  a 
spirit  that  unhai)pily  meeting  with  an  exercise  of  power  in 
England  which,  however  lawful,  is  not  reconcilable  to  any 
ideas  of  liberty,  much  less  with  theirs,  has  kindled  this 
flame  that  is  ready  to  consume  us. 

45.  I  do  not  mean  to  commend  either  the  spirit  in  this 
excess,  or  the  moral  causes  which  produce  it.  Perhaps  a 
more  smooth  and  accommodating  spirit  of  freedom  in  them 
would  be  more  acceptable  to  us.  Perhaps  ideas  of  liberty 
might  be  desired  more  reconcilable  with  an  arbitrary  and 
boundless  authority.  Perhaps  we  might  wish  the  colonists 
to  be  persuaded  that  their  liberty  is  more  secure  when  held 
in  trust  for  them  by  us,  as  their  guardians  during  a  perpet- 
ual minority,  than  with  any  part  of  it  in  their  own  hands. 
The  question  is,  not  whether  their  spirit  deserves  praise  or 
blame,  but  —  what,  in  the  name  of  God,  shall  we  do  with 
it?  You  have  before  you  the  object,  such  as  it  is,  with  all 
its  glories,  with  all  its  imperfections  on  its  head.  You  see 
the  magnitude,  the  importance,  the  temper,  the  habits,  the 
disorders.  By  all  these  considerations  we  are  strongly 
urged  to  determine  something  concerning  it.  We  are 
called  upon  to  fix  some  rule  and  line  for  our  future  conduct 
which  may  give  a  little  stability  to  our  politics,  and  prevent 
the  return  of  such  unhappy  deliberations  as  the  present. 
Every  such  return  will  bring  the  matter  before  us  in  a  still 
more  untractable  form.  For,  what  astonishing  and  incredi- 
ble things  have  we  not  seen  already !  What  monsters  have 
not  been  generated  from  this  unnatural  contention  !  Whilst 
every  principle  of  authority  and  resistance  has  been  pushed, 
upon  both  sides,  as  far  as  it  would  go,  there  is  nothing  eo 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       29 


solid  and  certain,  either  in  reasoning  or  in  practice,  that 
has  not  been  shaken.  Until  very  lately  all  autliority  in 
America  seemed  to  be  nothing  but  an  emanation  from 
yours.  Even  the  i)opular  jjart  of  the  colony  constitution 
derived  all  its  activity  and  its  first  vital  movement  from 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  We  thought,  Sir,  that  the 
utmost  which  the  discontented  colonists  could  do  was  to 
disturb  authority  ;  we  never  dreamt  they  could  of  them- 
selves siij)ply  it  —  knowing  in  general  what  an  operose 
business  it  is  to  establish  a  government  absolutely  new. 
But  having,  for  our  purposes  in  this  contention,  resolved 
that  none  but  an  obedient  Assembly  should  sit,  the  humors 
of  the  people  there,  finding  all  passage  through  the  legal 
channel  stopped,  with  great  violence  broke  out  another  way. 
Some  provinces  have  tried  their  experiment,  as  we  have 
tried  ours  ;  and  theirs  has  succeeded.  They  have  formed 
a  government  sufficient  for  its  purposes,  without  the  bustle 
of  a  revolution  or  the  troublesome  formality  of  an  election. 
Evident  necessity  and  tacit  consent  have  done  the  business 
in  an  instant.  So  well  they  have  done  it,  that  Lord  Dun- 
more  *  —  the  account  is  among  the  fragments  on  your  table 
—  tells  you  that  the  new  institution  is  infinitely  better 
obeyed  than  the  ancient  government  ever  was  in  its  most 
fortunate  periods.  Obedience  is  what  makes  governn)ent, 
and  not  the  names  by  which  it  is  called ;  not  the  name  of 
Governor,  as  formerly,  or  Committee,  as  at  present.  This 
new  government  has  originated  directly  from  the  people, 
and  was  not  transmitted  through  any  of  the  ordinary  artifi- 
cial media  of  a  positive  constitution.  It  was  not  a  manu- 
facture ready  formed,  and  transmitted  to  them  in  that 
condition  from  England.  The  evil  arising  from  hence  is 
this ;  that  the  colonists  having  once  found  the  possibility 
of  enjoying  the  advantages  of  order  in  the  midst  of  a  strug- 

^  Lord  Dunmore  ;  Governor  of  Virginia.  His  testimony 
was  the  more  important  because  he  was  regarded  as  a  bitter 
enemy  of  the  colonies.  ' 


30 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


i 


■i.i::   , 
rill    ■ 


gle  for  liberty,  such  struggles  will  not  henceforward  seem 
so  terrible  to  the  settled  and  sober  j)art  of  nuiiikind  as  they 
had  a[)peared  before  the  trial. 

46.  Pursuing  the  same  plan  of  punishing  by  the  denial 
of  the  exercise  of  government  to  still  greater  lengths,  we 
wholly  abrogated  the  ancient  government  ^  of  Massachu- 
setts. We  were  confident  that  the  first  feeling,  if  not  the 
very  pros])ect,  of  anarchy  would  instantly  enforce  a  com 
plete  submission.  The  experiment  was  tried.  A  neWj 
strange,  unex])ected  face  of  things  appeared.  Anarchy  is 
found  tolerable.  A  vast  province  has  now  subsisted,  and 
subsisted  in  a  considerable  degree  of  health  and  vigor  for 
near  a  twelvemonth,  without  Governor,  without  public  coun- 
cil, without  judges,  without  executive  magistrates.  How 
long  it  will  continue  in  this  state,  or  what  may  arise  out  of 
this  unheard-of  situation,  how  can  the  wisest  of  us  conjec- 
ture? Our  late  experience  has  taught  us  that  many  of 
those  fundamental  princijJes,  formerly  believed  infallible, 
are  either  not  of  the  importance  they  were  imagined  to  be, 
or  that  we  have  not  at  all  adverted  to  some  other  far  more 
important  and  far  more  powerful  principles,  which  entirely 
overrule  those  we  had  considered  as  omnipotent.  I  am 
much  against  any  furtlier  experiments  which  tend  to  put  to 
the  jn'oof  any  more  of  these  allowed  opinions  which  contrib- 
ute so  much  to  the  public  tranquillity.  In  effect,  we  suffer 
as  much  at  home  by  this  loosening  of  all  ties,  and  this  con- 
cussion of  all  established  opinions,  as  we  do  abroad  ;  for  in 
order  to  prove  that  the  Americans  have  no  right  to  their 
liberties,  we  are  every  day  endeavoring  to  subvert  the 
maxims  which  preserve  the  whole  spirit  of  our  own.  To 
nrove  that  the  Americans  ought  not  to  be  free,  we  are 
obliged  to  depreciate  the  value  of  freedom  itself ;  and  we 

'  abrogated  the  ancient  government.  In  1774,  Parlia- 
ment forbade  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  hold  town  meet- 
ings, changed  the  charter  of  the  colony,  and  gave  the  appoint- 
ment of  judges  into  the  hands  of  the  King  or  his  agents. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES,      31 

never  seem  to  gain  a  paltry  advantage  over  them  in  debate 
without  attacking  some  of  those  princiijles,  or  deriding 
some  of  those  feelings,  for  which  our  ancestors  have  shed 
their  blood. 

47.  But,  Sir,  in  wishing  to  put  an  end  to  pernicious 
t'Xperinients,  I  do  not  mean  to  preclude  the  fullest  impiiry. 
Far  from  it.  Far  from  deciding  on  a  sudden  or  partial 
view,  I  would  patiently  go  round  and  round  the  subject, 
and  survey  it  n)inutely  in  every  possible  aspect.  Sir,  if 
I  were  capable  of  engaging  you  to  an  equal  attention,  I 
would  state  that,  as  far  as  I  am  capable  of  dis-   „, 

'  ^  _  Three  Ways 

cerning,  there  are  but  three  ways  of  proceeding  of  Denii-.f? 

,      •  .  .  1  ,  ..•',.,'  .,     .*     with  this 

relative  to  tins  stubl)orn  spirit  wincli  prevails  in  Rebellious 
your  colonies,  and  disturbs  your  government. 
These  are  —  to  change  that  spirit,  as  inconvenient,  by  re- 
moving the  causes  ;  to  prosecute  it  as  criminal ;  or  to  com- 
ply with  it  as  necessary.  I  would  not  be  guilty  of  an 
imperfect  enumeration  ;  I  can  think  of  but  these  three. 
Another  has  indeed  been  started,  —  that  of  giving  up  the 
colonies  ;  but  it  met  so  slight  a  reception  that  I  do  not 
think  myself  obliged  to  dwell  a  great  while  upon  it.  It  is 
nothing  but  a  little  sally  of  anger,  like  the  forwardness  of 
peevish  children,  who,  wiien  they  car  lot  get  all  they  would 
have,  are  resolved  to  take  nothing. 

48.  The  first  of  these  plans  —  to  change  the  spirit,  as 
inconvenient,  by  removing  the  causes  —  I  think  is  the  most 
like  a  systematic  proceeding.  It  is  radical  in  its  principle ; 
but  it  is  attended  with  great  difficulties,  some  of  them  little 
short,  as  I  conceive,  of  impossibilities.  This  will  appeal 
by  examining  into  the  plans  which  have  been  proposed. 

49.  As  the  growing  population  in  the  colonies  is  evi« 
dentlv  one  cause  of  their  resistance,  it  was  last  session 
mentioned  in  both  Houses,  by  men  of  weight,  and  received 
not  without  applause,  that  in  order  to  check  this  evil  it 
would  be  proper  for  the  crown  to  make  no  further  grants 
of   land.     But   to  this    scheme  there    are   two  objections* 


B!2 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


';!       I 


<     I 


The  first,  that  there  is  already  so  much  unsettled  land  in 
private  hands  as  to  afford  room  for  an  immense  future 
population,  although  the  crown  not  only  withheld  its 
grants,  but  annihilated  its  soil.  If  this  be  the  case,  then 
the  only  effect  of  this  avarice  of  desolation,  this  hoarding 
of  a  royal  wilderness,  would  be  to  raise  the  value  of  the 
possessions  in  the  hands  or  the  great  private  monopolists, 
without  any  adequate  check  to  the  growing  and  alanning 
mischief  of  population. 

50.  But  if  you  stopped  your  grants,  what  would  be  the 
consequence  ?  The  peojjle  would  occupy  without  grants. 
They  have  already  so  occupied  in  many  places.  You  can- 
not station  garrisons  in  every  part  of  these  deserts.  If 
you  drive  the  people  from  one  place,  they  will  carry  on 
their  annual  tillage,  and  remove  with  their  flocks  and  herds 
to  another.  Many  of  the  people  in  the  back  settlements 
are  already  little  attached  to  particular  situations.  Already 
they  have  topped  the  Appalachian  mountains.  From 
whence  they  behold  before  them  an  immense  plain,  one 
vast,  rich,  level  meadow ;  a  square  of  five  hundred  miles. 
Over  this  they  would  wander  without  a  possibility  of 
restraint ;  they  would  change  their  manners  witl  the  habits 
of  their  life  ;  would  soon  forget  a  government  by  which 
they  were  disowned  ;  would  become  hordes  of  English  Tar- 
tars ;  *  and,  pouring  down  upon  your  unfortified  frontiers 
a  fierce  and  irresistible  cavalry,  become  masters  of  your 
governors  and  your  counsellors,  your  collectors  and  comp- 
trollers, and  of  all  the  slaves  that  adhered  to  them.  Such 
would,  and  in  no  long  time  must  be,  the  effect  of  attemj)t- 
ing  to  forbid  as  a  crime  and  to  suppress  as  an  evil,  the 
command  and  blessir.g  of  providence,  Increase  and  mul- 
tiply. Such  would  be  the  happy  result  of  the  endeavor 
to  keep  as  a  lair  of  wild  beasts  that  earth  which  God,  by 

'  English  Tartars  ;  alluding  probably  to  the  host  of  Mon- 
gol and  Tartar  warriors,  who  under  Jeugis  Khan  swept  over 
Asia  iu  almost  irresistible  force. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       33 


an  express  charter,  has  given  to  the  children  of  men.  Far 
different,  and  surely  much  wiser,  has  been  our  policy  hith- 
erto. Hitherto  we  have  invited  our  people,  by  every  kind 
of  bounty,  to  fixed  establishments.  We  have  invited  the 
husbandman  to  look  to  authority  for  his  title.  We  have 
taught  him  piously  to  believe  in  the  mysterious  virtue  of 
wax  and  parchment.^  We  have  thrown  each  tract  of  land, 
as  it  was  peopled,  into  districts,  that  the  ruling  power 
should  never  be  wholly  out  of  sight.  We  have  settled  all 
we  could  ;  and  we  have  carefully  attended  every  settlement 
with  government. 

51.  Adhering,  Sir,  as  I  do,  to  this  policy,  as  well  as  for 
the  reasons  I  have  just  given,  I  think  this  new  project  of 
hedging-in  population  to  be  neither  prudent  nor  practicable. 

52.  To  impoverish  the  colonies  in  general,  and  in  partic- 
ular to  arrest  the  noble  course  of  their  marine  enterprises, 
would  be  a  mjre  easy  task.  I  freely  confess  it.  We  have 
shown  a  disposition  to  a  system  of  this  kind,  a  disposition 
even  to  continue  the  restraint  after  the  offence,  looking  on 
ourselves  as  rivals  to  our  colonies,  and  persuaded  that  of 
course  we  must  gain  all  that  they  shall  lose.  Much  mis- 
chief we  may  certainly  do.  The  power  inadequate  to  all 
other  things  is  often  more  than  sufficient  for  this.  I  do 
not  look  on  the  direct  and  immediate  power  of  the  colonies 
to  resist  our  violence  as  very  formidable.  lu  this,  how- 
ever, T  may  be  mistaken.  But  when  I  consider  that  vre 
have  colonies  for  no  purpose  but  to  be  serviceable  to  us,  it 
seems  to  my  poor  understanding  a  little  preposterous  to 
make  them  unserviceable  in  order  to  keep  them  obedient. 
It  is,  in  truth,  nothing  more  than  the  old  and,  as  I  thought, 
exploded  problem  of  tyranny,  wiiich  proposes  to  beggar  its 
subjects  into  submission.  But  remember,  when  you  have 
feompleted  your  system  of  impoverishment,  that  nature  still 
proceeds  in  her  ordinary  course  ;    that  discontent  will  in- 

^  Tvax  and  parchment  ==  the  observance  of  legal  ^oruis  and 
modes  of  procedure. 


u 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


I         ,1 


crease  with  misery ;  and  tha'.  there  are  critical  moments 
in  the  fortune  of  all  states  when  they  who  are  too  weak 
to  contribute  to  your  prosperity  may  be  strong  enough  to 
complete  your  ruin.     Spollatis  arma  sitpersunt} 

53.  The  temper  and  characl.er  vvhicli  prevail  in  our  colo- 
nies are,  I  am  afraid,  unalterable  by  any  human  art.  We 
cannot,  I  fear,  falsify  the  pedigree  of  this  fierce  people, 
and  i)ersuade  them  that  they  are  not  sprung  from  a  nation 
in  whose  veins  the  blood  of  freedom  circulates.  The  lan- 
guage in  which  they  would  hear  you  tell  them  this  tale 
would  detect  the  imposition  ;  your  speech  would  betray ' 
you.  An  Englishman  is  the  unfittest  person  on  earth  to 
argue  another  Englishman  into  slavery. 

54.  I  think  it  is  nearly  as  little  in  our  power  to  change 
their  republican  religion  as  their  free  descent ;  or  to  sub- 
stitute the  Roman  Catholic  as  a  penalty,  or  the  Cburch  of 
England  as  an  improvement.  The  mode  of  inquisition 
and  dragooning  is  going  out  of  fashion  in  the  Old  World, 
and  I  should  not  confide  much  to  their  efficacy  in  the  New. 
The  education  of  the  Americans  is  also  on  the  same  un- 
alterable bottom  with  their  religion.  You  cannot  persuade 
them  to  burn  their  books  ^  of  curious  science ;  to  banish 
their  lawyers  from  their  courts  of  laws  ;  or  to  quench  the 
lights  of  their  assemblies  by  refusing  to  choose  those  per- 
sons who  are  best  read  in  their  pr"viloges.  It  would  be  no 
less  impracticable  to  think  of  wholly  ainiihilating  the  popu- 
lar assemblies  in  which  these  lawyers  sit.  The  army,  by 
which  we  must  govern  in  their  place,  would  be  far  more 
chargeable  to  us,  not  quite  so  effectual,  and  perhaps  in  th€ 
iud  full  as  difficult  to  be  kept  in  obedience. 

55.  With  regard  to  the  high  aristocratic  spirit  of  Vii 

^  Spoliatis  arma  supersunt ;  a  quotation  from  Juvenal, 
VIII.  12t,  meiuiing  "to  tlic  despoiled,  their  anus  remain," 

^  language  vrould  betray  ;  a  probable  allusion  to  Matthew 
ttxvi.  73,  or  to  Judges  xii.  6. 

'  burn  their  books.    See  Acts  xix.  19. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE   COLONIES.       35 


ginia  and  the  southern  colonies,  it  has  been  proposed,  1 
know,  to  reduce  it  by  declaring  a  general  enfranchisement 
of  their  slaves.  This  object  has  had  its  advocates  and 
panegyrists ;  yet  I  never  could  argue  myself  into  any 
opinion  of  it.  Slaves  are  often  nmch  attached  to  their 
masters.  A  general  wild  offer  of  liberty  would  not  always 
be  accepted.  History  furnishes  few  instances  of  it.  It  is 
sometimes  as  hard  to  persuade  slaves  to  be  free,  as  it  is  tc 
compel  freemen  to  be  slaves  ;  and  in  this  auspicious  scheme 
we  should  have  both  these  pleasing  tasks  on  our  hands  at 
once.  But  when  we  talk  of  enfranchisement,  do  we  not 
perceive  that  the  American  master  may  enfranchise  too. 
and  arm  servile  hands  in  defence  of  freedom  ?  —  a  measure 
to  which  other  people  have  had  recourse  more  than  once, 
and  not  without  success,  in  a  desperate  situation  of  their 
affairs. 

bOt.  Slaves  as  these  unfortunate  black  people  are,  and 
dull  as  all  men  are  from  slavery,  must  they  not  a  little 
suspect  the  offer  of  freedom  from  that  very  nation  which 
has  sold  them  to  their  present  masters  —  from  that  nation, 
one  of  wliose  causes  of  (piarrel  with  those  masters  is  their 
refusal  to  deal  any  more  in  that  inhuman  traffic  ?  An 
offer  of  freedom  from  Elngland  would  come  rather  oddly, 
shipped  to  them  in  an  African  vessel  which  is  refused  an 
entry  into  tlie  j)()rts  of  Virginia  or  Carolina  with  a  cargo 
of  three  hundred  Angola  ^  negroes.  It  would  be  curious  to 
see  the  Guinea  captain  attempting  at  the  same  instant 
to  i)ublisli  his  proclamation  of  liberty,  and  to  advertise  his 
sale  of  slaves. 

57.  But  let  us  suppose  all  these  moral  difficulties    got 
over.     The  ocean  remains.     You  cannot  pump  tliis  dry  ; 
and  as  long  as  it  continues  in  its  present  bed,  so  long  al' 
the  causes  which  weaken  authority  by  distance  will  cor 
tinue. 

*  Angola  ;  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  noted  for  its  activit; 
in  the  slave  trade. 


Ilil  if- 


36 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


1! 


"Ye  gods,^  annihilate  but  space  and  timu. 
And  make  two  lovers  happy  !  " 

was  a  pious  and  passionate  prayer  ;  but  just  as  reasonable 
as  many  of  the  serious  wishes  of  grave  and  solemn  poli 
ticians. 

58.  If  then,  Sir,  it  seems  almost  desperate  to  think  of 
any  alterative  course  for  changing  the  moral  causes,  and 
not  quite  easy  to  remove  the  natural,  which  produce  preju 
dices  irreconcilable  to  the  late  exercise  of  our  authority  — 
but  that  the  spirit  infallibly  will  continue,  and,  continuing, 
will  produce  such  effects  as  now  embarrass  us  —  the  second 
mode  under  consideration  is  to  prosecute  that  s})irit  m  its 
overt  acts  as  criminal. 

59.  At  this  proposition  I  must  pause  a  moment.  Tlie 
thing  seems  a  great  deal  too  big  for  my  ideas  of  jurispru 
dence.  It  should  seem  to  my  way  of  conceiving  such 
matters  that  there  is  a  very  wide  difference,  in  reason  and 
policy,  between  the  mode  of  proceeding  on  the  irregular 
conduct  of  scattered  individuals,  or  even  of  bands  of  men 
who  disturb  order  within  the  state,  and  the  civil  dissensions 
which  mr.,y,  from  time  to  time,  on  great  auestions,  agitate 
the  several  communities  which  compose  a  great  empire.  It 
looks  to  me  to  be  narrow  and  pedantic  to  a])i)ly  the  ordinary 
ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this  great  public  contest.  I  do 
not  know  the  method  of  drawing  up  an  indictment  against 
a  whole  people.  I  cannot  insult  and  ridicule  the  feelings 
of  millions  of  my  fellow-creatures  as  Sir  Edward  Coke  in- 
sulted ^  one  excellent  individual  (Sir  Walter  Raleigh)  at 
the  bar.  I  hope  I  am  not  ripe  to  pass  sentence  on  the 
gravest  public  bodies,  intrusted  witli  magistracies  of  p-reat 
authority  and  dignity,  and  charged  with  the  safety  of  their 

1  Ye  gods  ;  of  uncertain  origin. 

2  Sir  Edward  Coke  insulted  ;  referring  to  Raleigh's  trial, 
when  Coke,  then  attorney-general,  assailed  him  with  bitter  in- 
justice denouncing  him  in  the  words  :  — 

"  Thou  haat  an  English  face,  but  a  Spanish  heart." 


CONCILIATION  WITH   THE  COLONIES.       37 


fellow-citizens,  upon  the  very  same  title  that  I  am.  I  really 
think  that,  for  wise  men,  this  is  not  judicious ;  for  sober 
men,  not  decent ;  for  minds  tinctured  with  humanity,  not 
mild  and  merciful. 

60.  Perhaps,  Sir,  I  am  mistaken  in  my  idea  of  an  em- 
pire, as  distinguished  from  a  single  state  or  kingdom.     But 
my  idea  of  it  is  this ;  that  an   empire  is  the  aggregate  ol 
many  states  under  one  common  head,  whether  this  head  be 
a  monarch  or  a  presiding  reijublic.     It  does,  in  such  con- 
stitutions, frequently  happen  —  and  nothing  but  the  dismal, 
cold,  dead  uniformity  of  servitude  can  prevent  its  happen- 
ing —  that  the  subordinate  parts  have  many  local  privileges 
and  immunities.     Between  these  privileges  and  the  supreme 
common   authority  the  line  may  be  extremely  nice.     Of 
course  disputes,  often,  too,  very  bitter  disputes,  and  much 
ill  blood,   will  arise.      But   though  every  privilege  is  an 
exemption,  in  the  case,  from  the  ordinary  exercise  of  the 
supreme  authority,  it  is  no  denial  of  it.     The  claim  of  a 
privilege  seems  rather,  ex  vi  termini,^  to  imply  a  superior 
power ;  for  to  talk  of  the  privileges  of  a  state  or  of  a  per- 
son who  has  no  superior  is  hardly  any  better  than  speaking 
nonsense.     Now,  in  such  unfortunate  quarrels  among  the 
component  parts  of  a  great  political  union  of  communities, 
I  can  scarcely  conceive  anything  more  completely  impru- 
dent than  for  the  head  of  the  empire  to  insist  that,  if  any 
privilege  is  pleaded  against  his  will  or  his  acts,  his  whole 
authority  is  denied  ;  instantly  to  proclaim  rebellion,  to  beat 
to  arms,  and  to  put  the  oifending  provinces  under  the  ban. 
Will  not  this,  Sir,  very  soon  teach  the  provinces  to  make 
no  distinctions  on  their  part  ?     Will  it  not  teach  them  that 
the  government,  against  which  a  claim  of  liberty  is  tanta- 
mount to  high  treason,  is  a  government  to  which  submission 
is  equivalent  to  slavery  ?     It  may  not  always  be  quite  con- 
venient to  impress  dependent  communities   with  such  ar 
idea. 

'  Bx  vi  termini  =  by  the  meaning  of  the  term. 


38 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


II 


61.  We  are,  indeed,  in  all  disputes  with  the  colonies,  by 
the  necessity  of  things,  the  judge.  It  is  true,  Sir.  But  1 
confess  that  the  character  of  judge  in  my  own  cause  is  a 
thing  that  frightens  me.  Instead  of  filling  me  with  pride, 
I  am  exceedingly  humbled  by  it.  I  cannot  proceed  with  a 
titern,  assured,  judicial  confidence,  until  I  find  myself  in 
sometliing  more  like  a  judicial  character.  I  must  have 
these  hesitations  as  long  as  I  am  compelled  to  recollect 
that,  in  my  little  reading  upon  such  contests  as  these,  the 
sense  of  mankind  has  at  least  as  often  decided  against  the 
superior  as  the  subordinate  power.  Sir,  let  me  add,  too, 
that  the  opinion  of  my  having  some  abstract  right  in  my 
favor  would  not  put  me  much  at  my  ease  in  passing  sen- 
tence, p.nless  I  could  be  .sure  that  there  were  no  rights 
which,  in  their  exercise  under  certain  circumstances,  were 
not  the  most  odious  of  all  wrongs  and  the  most  vexatious 
of  all  injustice.  Sir,  these  considerations  have  great  weight 
with  me  when  I  find  things  so  circumstanced,  that  I  see  the 
same  party  at  once  a  civil  litigant  against  me  in  point  of 
right  and  a  culprit  before  me,  while  I  sit  as  a  criminal 
judge  on  acts  of  his  whose  moral  quality  is  to  be  decided 
upon  the  merits  of  that  very  litigation.  Men  are  every 
now  and  then  put,  by  the  complexity  of  human  affairs,  into 
strange  situations  ;  but  justice  is  the  same,  let  the  judge 
be  in  what  situation  he  will. 

62.  There  is.  Sir,  also  a  circumstance  which  convinces 
me  that  this  mode  of  criminal  proceeding  is  not,  at  least  in 
the  present  stage  of  our  contest,  altogether  expedient ; 
which  is  nothing  less  than  the  conduct  of  those  very  persons 
who  have  seemed  to  adopt  that  mode  by  lately  declaring 
a,  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  as  they  had  formerly 
addressed  ^  to  have  traitors  brought  hither,  under  an  Act 
of  Henry  the  P]ighth,  for  trial.  For  though  rebellion  is 
declared,  it  is  not  proceeded  against  as  such,  nor  have  any 
steps  been  taken  towards  the  apprehension  or  conviction  of 

^  addreaaed  =  petitioned. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       39 


any  individual  offender,  either  on  our  late  or  our  former 
Address  ;  but  modes  of  public  coercion  have  been  adopted, 
and  such  as  have  much  more  resemblance  to  a  sort  of 
qualified  hostility  towards  an  independent  power  tlian  the 
punishment  of  rebellious  subjects.  All  this  seems  rather 
inconsistent ;  but  it  shows  how  difficult  it  is  to  apply  these 
juridical  ideas  to  our  present  case. 

63.  In  this  situation,  let  us  seriously  and  coolly  pondePe 
What  is  it  we  have  got  by  all  our  menaces,  which  have  been 
many  and  ferocious  ?  What  advantage  have  we  derived 
from  the  penal  laws  we  have  passed,  and  which,  for  the 
time,  have  been  severe  and  numerous  ?  What  advances 
have  we  made  towards  our  object  by  the  sending  of  a  force 
which,  by  land  and  sea,  is  no  contemptible  strength?  Has 
the  disorder  abated  ?  Nothing  less.  When  I  see  things 
in  this  situation  after  such  confident  hopes,  bold  promises, 
and  active  exertions,  I  cannot,  for  my  life,  avoid  a  suspicion 
that  the  plan  itself  is  not  correctly  right. 

64.  If,  then,  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  this  spirit  of 
American  liberty  be  for  the  greater  part,  or  rather  entirely, 
impracticable ;  if  the  ideas  of  criminal  process  be  inapplica- 
ble —  or,  if  applicable,  are  in  the  highest  degree   jy.  com- 
inexpedient  —  what  way  yet  remains  ?     No  way   ^''^e'^gg ." 
is  open  but  the  third  and  last  —  to  comply  with   "ty. 

the    American    spirit   as   necessary  ;  pr,  if  you  please,  to 
submit  to  it  as  a  necessary  evil. 

65.  If  we  adopt  this  mode,  —  if  we  mean  to  conciliate 

and  concede  —  let  us  see  of  what  nature  the  con-   b.  What 

cession  ought  to  be.     To  ascertain  the  nature   of 

our  concession,  we  must  look  at  their  complaint. 

The    colonies    complain    that  they  have   not    the   *"'"  °^  *'»® 

>■  >'  Conces- 

characteristic   mark  and  seal  of  British  freedom,    sion. 
They  complain   that   they  are  taxed    in    a  Parliament  in 
which  they  are  not  represented.     If  you  mean  to   j  Taxed 
satisfy  them  at  all,  you  must  satisfy  them  with   Repl.e"en, 
regard  to  this  complaint.     If  you  mean  to  please   tation. 


YOUR  Con- 
cession 

OUGHT  TO 

BE.    I.  Na~ 


40 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


I  i  I 


any  people,  you  must  give  tliem  the  boon  which  they  ask  j 
not  what  you  may  think  better  for  them,  but  of  a  kind 
totally  different.  Such  an  act  may  be  a  wise  regulation, 
but  it  is  no  concession ;  whereas  our  present  tJieme  is  the 
mode  of  giving  satisfaction. 

66.  Sir,  I  think  you  must  perceive  that  I  am  resolved 
this  day  to  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  the  question  of 
the  right  of  taxation.  Some  gentlemen  startle  —  but  it  is 
true ;  I  put  it  totally  out  of  the  question.  It  is  less  than 
nothing  in  my  consideration.  I  do  not  indeed  wonder, 
nor  will  you,  Sir,  that  gentlemen  of  profound  learning  are 
fcnd  of  displaying  it  on  this  profound  subject.  But  my 
consideration  is  narrow,  confined,  and  wholly  limited  to 
the  policy  of  the  question.  I  do  not  examine  whether  the 
giving  away  a  man's  money  be  a  power  excepted  and 
reserved  out  of  the  general  trust  of  government,  and  how 
far  all  mankind,  in  all  forms  of  polity,  are  entitled  to 
an  exercise  of  that  right  by  the  charter  of  nature ;  or, 
whether,  on  the  contrary,  a  right  of  taxation  is  necessarily 
involved  in  the  general  principle  of  legislation,  and  insep- 
arable from  the  ordinary  supreme  power.  These  are  deep 
questions,  where  great  names  militate  against  each  other, 
where  reason  is  perplexed,  and  an  appeal  to  authorities 
only  thickens  the  confusion ;  for  high  and  reverend  author- 
ities lift  up  their  heads  on  both  sides,  and  there  is  no  sure 
footing  in  the  middle.     This  point  is  the  great 

"  Serbonian  hog^ 
Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Casius  old, 
Where  armies  whole  have  sunk." 

I  do  not  intend  to  be  overwhelmed  in  that  bog,  though  in 
such  respectable  company.  The  question  with  me  is,  not 
whether  you  have  a  right  to  render  your  people  miserable, 
but  whether  it  is  not  your  interest  to  make  them  happy. 

^  great  Serbonian  bog  ;  a  quotation  from  Paradise  Lost, 
11.592-594. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       41 


It  is  not  what  a  lawyer  tells  me  I  may  do,  but  what  human- 
ity,  reason,  and  justice  tell  me  I  ought  to  do.  Is  a  politic 
act  the  worse  for  being  a  generous  one  ?  Is  no  concession 
proper  but  that  which  is  made  from  your  want  of  right 
to  keep  what  you  grant  ?  Or  does  it  lessen  the  grace  or 
dignity  of  relaxing  in  the  exercise  of  an  odious  claim 
because  you  have  your  evidence-room  full  of  titles,  and 
your  magazines  stuffed  witii  arms  to  enforce  them  ?  What 
signify  all  those  titles,  and  all  those  arms  ?  Of  what  avail 
are  they,  when  the  reason  of  the  thing  tells  me  that 
the  assertion  of  my  title  is  the  loss  of  my  suit,  and  that  I 
could  do  nothing  but  wound  myself  by  the  use  of  my  own 
weapons  ? 

67.  Such  is  steadfastly  my  opinion  of  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  keeping  up  the  concord  of  this  empire  by  an  unity 
of  spirit,  though  in  a  diversity  of  operations,  that,  if  I  were 
sure  the  colonists  had,  at  their  leaving  this  country,  sealed 
a  regular  compact  of  servitude  ;  that  they  had  solemnly 
abjured  all  the  rights  of  citizens ;  that  they  had  made  a 
vow  to  renounce  all  ideas  of  liberty  for  them  and  their 
posterity  to  all  generations ;  yet  I  should  hold  myself 
obliged  to  conform  to  the  temper  I  found  universally  prev- 
alent in  my  own  day,  and  to  govern  two  million  of  men, 
impatient  of  servitude,  on  the  principles  of  freedom.  I 
am  not  determining  a  point  of  law,  I  am  restoring  tranquil- 
lity ;  and  the  general  character  and  situation  of  a  people 
must  determine  what  sort  of  government  is  fitted  for  them. 
That  point  nothing  else  can  or  ought  to  determine. 

68.  My  idea,  th'^refore,  without  considering  whether  wt 
yield  it  as  a  matter  of  right  or  grant  as  matter  of  2.  Burke's 
favor,  is  to  admit  the  people  of  our  colonies  into  ^^^^ 

an  interest  in  the  Constitution  ;  and,  by  recording  that 
admission  in  the  journals  of  Parliament,  to  give  them  as 
strong  an  assurance  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  admit, 
that  we  roean  forever  to  adhere  to  that  solemn  declaratior 
»f  systematic  indulgence. 


42 


EDMUND    BURKE. 


69.  Some  years  ago  the  repeal  of  a  revenue  Act,  upon 
its  understood  principle,  might  have  served  to  show  that 
we  intended  an  unconditional  abatement  of  the  exercise  of 
a  taxing  power.  Such  a  measure  was  then  sufficient  to 
remove  all  suspicion,  and  to  give  perfect  content.  But 
unfortunate  events  since  that  time  may  make  something 
further  necessary ;  and  not  more  necessary  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  colonies  than  for  the  dignity  and  consistency 
of  our  own  future  proceedings. 

70.  I  have  taken  a  very  incorrect  measure  of  the  dis- 
position of  the  House  if  this  proposal  in  itself  would  be 
received  with  dislike.  I  think,  Sir,  we  have  few  American 
financiers.*  But  our  misfortune  is,  we  are  too  acute,  we 
are  too  equisite''  in  our  conjectures  of  the  future,  for  men 
oppressed  with  such  great  and  present  evils.  The  more 
moderate  among  the  opposers  of  Parliamentaiy  concession 
freely  confess  that  they  hope  no  good  from  taxation,  but 
they  apprehend  the  colonists  have  further  views  ;  and  if 
this  point  were  conceded,  tliey  would  instantly  attack  the 
trade  laws.  These  gentlemen  are  convinced  that  this  was 
the  intention  from  the  beginning,  and  the  quarrel  of  the 
Americans  with  taxation  was  no  more  than  a  cloak  and 
cover  to  this  design.  Such  has  been  the  language  even  of 
a  gentleman  of  real  moderation,^  and  of  a  natural  temper 
well  adjusted  to  fair  and  equal  government.  I  am,  how- 
ever, Sir,  not  a  little  surprised  at  this  kind  of  discourse 
whenever  I  hear  it ;  and  I  am  the  more  surprised  on 
account  of  the  alignments  which  I  constantly  find  in  com- 
pany with  it,  and  which  are  often  urged  from  the  same 
mouths  and  on  the  same  day. 

71.  For  instance,  when  we  allege  that  it  is  against  rea- 
son to  tax  a  people  under  so  many  restraints  in  trade  as  the 

*  American  financiers  =  financiers  skilled  in  dealing  with 
a£Fairs  in  America. 

^  too  exquisite  :=  too  careful,  over-careful,  over-anxious. 
^  a  gentleman  of  real  moderation;  a  Mr.  Rice. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       43 

Americans,  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon  shall  tell  you 
that  the  restraints  on  trade  are  futile  and  useless  —  of  no 
advantage  to  us,  and  of  no  burthen  to  those  on  whom  they 
are  imposed ;  that  the  trade  to  America  is  not  secured  by 
the  Acts  of  Navigation,^  but  by  the  natural  and  irresistible 
advantage  of  a  commercial  preference. 

72.  Such  is  the  merit  of  the  trade  laws  in  this  posture  of 
the  debate.  But  when  strong  internal  circumstances  are 
urged  against  the  taxes ;  when  the  scheme  is  dissected ; 
when  experience  and  the  nature  of  things  are  brought  to 
prove,  and  do  prove,  the  utter  impossibility  of  obtaining  an 
effective  revenue  from  the  colonies  ;  when  these  things  are 
pressed,  or  rather  press  themselves,  so  as  to  drive  the  advo- 
cates of  colony  taxes  to  a  clear  admission  of  the  futility  oi 
the  scheme ;  then,  Sir,  the  sleeping  trade  laws  revive  from 
their  trance,  and  this  useless  taxation  is  to  be  kept  sacred, 
not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  a  counter-guard  and  security  of 
the  laws  of  trade. 

73.  Then,  Sir,  you  keep  up  revenue  laws  which  are  mia~ 
chievous,  in  order  to  preserve  trade  laws  that  are  useless. 
Such  is  the  wisdom  of  our  plan  in  both  its  members. 
They  are  separately  given  up  as  of  no  value,  and  yet  one 
is  always  to  be  defended  for  the  sake  of  the  other ;  but  I 
cannot  agree  with  the  noble  lord,  nor  with  the  pamphlet ' 
from  whence  he  seems  to  have  borrowed  these  ideas  con- 
cerning the  inutility  of  the  trade  laws.  For,  without  idol- 
izing them,  I  am  sure  they  are  still,  in  many  ways,  of  great 
use  to  us ;  and  in  former  times  they  have  been  of  the 
greatest.  They  do  confine,  and  they  do  greatly  narrow, 
the  market  for  the  Americans  ;  but  my  perfect  conviction 
of  this  does  not  help  me  in  the  least  to  discern  how  the 

*  Acts  of  Navigation,  by  which  every  other  nation  was 
forbidden  to  bring  to  England  or  to  its  colonies  anything  but 
the  actual  products  of  that  country.  Hence  the  greater  amount 
of  the  carrying  trade  was  in  the  hands  of  England  itself. 

*  the  pamphlet ;  written  by  Dr.  Tucker,  of  Gloucester, 


' » 


44 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


revenue  laws  form  any  security  whatsoever  to  the  com« 
luercial  reguhitions,  or  that  these  commercial  regulations 
are  the  true  ground  of  the  quarrel,  or  that  the  giving  way, 
in  any  one  instance  of  authority,  is  to  lose  all  that  may 
remain  unconceded. 

74.  One  fact  is  clear  and  indisputable.  The  public  and 
avowed  origin  of  tins  quarrel  was  on  taxation.  This 
quarrel  has  indeed  brought  on  new  disputes  on  new  ques 
tions ;  but  certainly  the  least  bitter,  and  the  fewest  of  all, 
on  the  trade  laws.  To  judge  which  of  the  two  be  the  real 
radical  cause  of  quarrel,  we  have  to  see  whether  the  com- 
mercial dispute  did,  in  order  of  time,  precede  the  dis])ute 
on  taxation?  There  is  not  a  shadow  of  evidence  for  it. 
Next,  to  enable  us  to  judge  whether  at  this  moment  a  dis- 
like to  the  trade  laws  be  the  real  cause  of  quarrel,  it  is 
absolutely  nesessary  to  put  the  taxes  out  of  the  question  by 
a  repeal.  See  how  the  Americans  act  in  this  position,  and 
t!ien  you  will  be  able  to  discern  correctly  what  is  the  true 
object  of  the  controversy,  or  whether  any  controversy  at  all 
will  remain.  Unless  you  consent  to  remove  this  cause  of 
difference,  it  is  impossible,  with  decency,  to  assert  that  the 
dispute  is  not  upon  what  it  is  avowed  to  be.  And  I  would. 
Sir,  recommend  to  your  serious  consideration  whether  it  be 
prudent  to  form  a  rule  for  punishing  people,  not  on  their 
own  acts,  but  on  your  conjectures  ?  Surely  it  is  prepos- 
terous at  the  very  best.  It  is  not  justifying  your  anger  by 
their  misconduct,  but  it  is  converting  your  ill-will  into  their 
delinquency. 

75.  But  the  colonies  will  go  further.^  Alas !  alas ! 
when  will  this  speculation  against  fact  and  reason  end  ? 
What  will  quiet  these  panic  fears  which  we  entertain  of 
the  hostile  effect  of  a  conciliatory  conduct  ?  Is  it  true  that 
no  case  can  exist  in  which  it  is  proper  for  the  sovereign 
to  accede  to  the  desires  of  his  discontented  subjects  ?     Is 

^  the  colonies  will  go  further,  i.  e.,  the  objection  of  the 
npponeuts  of  fiurke's  scheme. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       46 

there  anything  peculiar  in  this  case  to  make  a  rule  for 
itself  ?  Is  all  authority  of  course  lost  when  it  is  not  i)ushed 
to  the  extreme?  Is  it  a  certain  maxim  that  the  fewer 
causes  of  dissatisfaction  are  left  hy  government,  the  more 
the  subject  will  be  inclined  to  resist  and  rebel? 

76.  All  these  objections  being  in  fact  no  more  than  sua 
picions,  conjectures,  divinations,  formed  in  defiance  of  fact 
and  experience,  they  did  not,  Sir,  discourage  me  from 
entertaining  the  idea  of  a  conciliatory  concession  founded 
on  the  principles  which  I  have  just  stated. 

77.  In  forming  a  plan  for  this  jmrpose,  I  endeavored  to 
put  myselt   in  that  frame   of  mind   which  was  the  most 
natural  and  the  most  reasonable,  and  which  was  certainly 
the  most  probable  means  of  securing  me  from  all  error. 
I  set  out  with  a  perfect  distrust  of  my  own  abilities,  a  total 
renunciation  of  every  speculation  of  my  own,  and  3.  prece- 
with  a  profound  reverence  for  the  wisdom  of  our   condiia- 
ancestors  who  have  left  us  the  inheritance  of  so   *'°"' 
happy  a  constitution  and  so  flourishing   an  empire,  and, 
what  is  a  thousand  times  more  valuable,  the  treasury  of  the 
maxims  and  principles  which  formed  the  one  and  obtained 
the  other. 

78.  During  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  Spain  of  the  Aus- 
trian family,  whenever  they  were  at  a  loss  in  the  Spanish 
councils,  it  was  common  for  their  statesmen  to  say  that 
they  ought  to  consult  the  genius  of  Philip  the  Second. 
The  genius  of  Philip  the  Second  ^  might  mislead  them,  and 
the  issue  of  their  affairs  showed  tliat  they  had  not  chosen 
the  most  perfect  standard ;  but,  Sir,  I  am  sure  that  I  shah 
not  be  misled  when,  in  a  case  of  constitutional  difficulty,  I 
consult  the  genius  of  the  English  Constitution.  Consulting 
at  that  oracle  ^  —  it  was  with  all  due  humility  and  piety  — 

^  Philip  the  Second,  1556-1598. 

2  consulting  at  that  oracle  ;  referring,  of  course,  to  the 
ancient  practice  of  appealing  to  the  oracle  of  a  god  for  guid* 
ance  as  to  a  proposed  course  of  action. 


46 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


'\B 


I  found  four  capital  examples  In  a  similar  case  before  me  \ 
those  of  Ireland,  Wales,  Chester,  and  Durham. 

79.  Ireland,  before  the  English  conquest,  though  never 
governed  by  a  despotic  power,  had  no  Parliament.  How 
far  the  English  Parliament  itself  was  at  that  time  modelled 
according  to  the  present  form  is  disputed  among  antiqua 
ries ;  but  we  have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to  be  assured 
that  a  form  of  Parliament  such  as  England  then  enjoyed 
she  instantly  communicated  to  Ireland,  and  we  are  equally 
sure  that  almost  every  successive  improvement  in  constitu- 
tional liberty,  as  fast  as  it  was  made  here,  was  transmitted 
thither.  The  feudal  baronage  and  the  feudal  knighthood, 
the  roots  of  our  primitive  Constitution,  were  early  trans- 
planted into  that  soil,  and  grew  and  flourished  there. 
Magna  Charta,  if  it  did  not  give  us  originally  th^  House  of 
Commons,  gave  us  at  least  a  House  of  Commons  of  weight 
and  consequence.  But  your  ancestors  did  not  churlishly  sit 
down  alone  to  the  feast  of  Magna  Charta.  Ireland  was 
made  immediately  a  partaker.  This  benefit  of  English 
laws  and  liberties,  I  confess,  was  not  at  first  extended  to 
all  Ireland.  Mark  the  consequence.  English  authority 
and  English  liberties  liad  exactly  the  same  boundaries. 
Vour  standard  couid  never  be  advanced  an  inch  before 
your  privileges.  Sir  John  Davis  ^  shows  beyond  a  doubt 
that  the  refusal  of  a  general  communication  of  these  rights 
was  the  true  cause  why  Ireland  was  five  hundred  years  in 
subduing ;  and  after  the  vain  projects  of  a  military  goverii- 
ment,  attempted  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  it  was 
soon  discovered  that  nothing  could  make  that  country 
English,  in  civility  and  allegiance,  but  your  laws  and  your 
forms  of  legislature.  It  was  not  English  arms,  but  the 
English  Constitution,  that  conquered  Ireland.  From  that 
time  Ireland  lias  ever  had  a  general  Parliament,  as  she  had 
before  a  partial  ParHament.     You  changed  the  people  ;  you 

^  Sir  John  Davis  (or  Davies).  In  1603  lie  was  solicitor- 
general  to  Ireland,  and  in  1612  published  a  work  on  the  politi< 
cal  state  of  that  country. 


CONCILIATION  WITH   THE  COLONIES.       4? 


ditered  the  religion ;  but  you  never  touched  the  form  or  the 
vital  substance  of  free  government  in  that  kingdom.  You 
deposed  kings  ;  you  restored  them;  you  altered  the  succeS' 
sion  to  theirs,  as  well  as  to  your  own  crown ;  but  yoi 
never  altered  their  Constitution,  the  principle  of  which  was 
respected  by  usurpation,  restored  with  the  restoration  of 
monarchy,  and  established,  I  trust,  forever  by  the  glorious 
Revolution.  This  has  made  Ireland  the  gx^eat  and  flourish 
ing  kingdom  that  it  is,  and,  from  a  disgrace  and  a  burthen 
intolerable  to  this  nation,  has  rendered  her  a  principal  part 
of  our  strength  and  ornament.  This  country  cannot  be 
said  to  have  ever  formally  taxed  her.  The  irregular 
things  done  in  the  confusion  of  mighty  troubles  and  on  the 
hinge  cf  great  revolutions,  even  if  all  were  done  that  is 
&aid  to  have  been  done,  form  no  example.  If  they  have 
any  effect  in  argument,  they  make  an  exception  to  prove 
the  rule.  None  of  your  own  liberties  could  stand  a  mo- 
ment, if  the  casual  deviations  from  them  at  such  times 
were  suffered  to  be  used  as  proofs  of  their  nullity.  By  the 
lucrative  amount  of  such  casual  breaches  in  the  constitu- 
tion, judge  what  the  stated  and  fixed  rule  of  supply  has 
been  in  that  kingdom.  Your  Irish  pensioners  would 
starve,  if  they  had  no  other  fund  to  live  on  tha^i  *^"vxes 
granted  by  English  authority.  Turn  your  eyes  to  those 
popular  grants  from  whence  all  your  great  supplies  are 
come,  and  learn  to  respect  that  only  source  of  public  wealth 
in  the  British  Empireo 

80.  My  next  example  is  Wales.  This  country  was  said 
[o  be  reduced  by  Henry  the  Third.  It  was  said  more  truly 
to  be  ">  by  Edward  the  First.  But  though  then  conquered, 
it  was  not  looked  u})on  as  any  i)art  of  the  realm  of  England. 
Its  old  Constitution,  wliatever  that  might  have  been,  was 
destroyed,  and  no  good  one  was  substituted  in  its  place. 
The  care  of  that  tract  was  put  into  the  hands  of  Lords 
Marchers  ^  —  a  form   of    government   of  a  very  singulav 

^  Lords  Marchers  =  the  lords  of  the  marches,  or  borders  ol 
a  territ'   v  .  they  had  kingly  authority. 


48 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


kind ;  a  strange  heterogeneous  monster,  something  between 
hostihty  and  government ;  perliaps  it  has  a  sort  of  resem- 
blance, according  to  the  modes  of  those  terms,  to  that  of 
Commander-in-chief  at  present,  to  whom  all  civil  power  is 
granted  as  secondary.  The  manners  of  the  Welsh  nation 
foUov/ed  the  genius  of  the  government.  The  people  were 
ferocious,  restive,  savage,  and  uncultivated  ;  sometimes  com- 
posed, never  pacified.  Wales,  within  itself,  was  in  perpet 
ual  disorder,  and  it  kept  the  frontier  of  England  in  per 
petual  alarm.  Benefits  from  it  to  the  state  there  were 
none.  Wales  was  only  known  to  England  by  incursion  and 
invasion. 

81.  Sir,  during  that  state  of  things,  Parliament  was  not 
idle.  They  attempted  to  subdue  the  fierce  spirit  of  the 
Wolsh  by  all  sorts  of  rigorous  laws.  They  prohibited  by 
statute  the  sending  all  sorts  of  arms  into  Wales,  as  you 
prohibit  by  proclamation  (with  something  more  of  doubt 
on  the  legality)  the  sending  arms  to  America.  They  dis- 
an^'^d  the  Welsh  by  statute,  as  you  attempted  (but  still 
with  more  question  on  the  legality)  to  disarm  New  Elngland 
by  an  instruction.  They  made  an  Act  to  drag  offenders 
from  Wales  into  England  for  trial,  as  you  have  done  (but 
with  more  hardship)  with  regard  to  America.  By  another 
Act,  where  one  of  the  parties  was  an  Englishman,  they 
ordained  that  his  trial  should  be  always  by  English.  They 
made  Acts  to  restrain  trade,  as  you  do  ;  and  thej^  prevented 
the  Welsh  from  the  use  of  fairs  and  markets,  as  you  do 
the  Americans  from  fisheries  and  foreign  ports.  In  shorty 
when  the  Statute  Book  was  not  quite  so  nmch  swelled  as  it 
is  now,  you  find  no  less  than  fifteen  ac*;s  '^f  penal  regulation 
on  the  subject  of  Wales. 

82.  Here  we  rub  our  handso  —  A  fine  body  ^  of  prece- 
dents for  the  authority  of  Parliament  and  the  use  of  it !  — 
I  admit  it  fully  ;  and  pray  add  likewise  to  these  precedents 

*  A  fine  body  ;  the  exclamation  of  one  who  is  in  favor  ot 
ooeroiou 


III 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       49 


that  all  the  while  Wales  rid  this  kingdom  like  an  incubus, 
that  it  was  an  unprofitable  and  oppressive  burthen,  and  that 
an  Englishman  travelling  in  that  country  could  not  go  six 
yards  from  the  high  road  without  being  murdered. 

83.  The  march  of  the  buman  mind  is  slow.  Sir,  it  was 
not  until  after  two  hundred  years  discovered  that,  by  an 
eternal  law,  providence  had  decreed  vexation  to  violence, 
and  poverty  to  rapine.  Your  ancestors  did,  however,  a^ 
length  open  their  eyes  to  the  ill-husbandry  of  injustice. 
They  found  that  the  tyranny  of  a  free  people  could  of  all 
tyrannies  the  least  be  endured,  and  that  laws  made  against 
a  whole  nation  were  not  the  most  effectual  methods  of 
securing  its  obedience.  Accordingly,  in  the  twenty-seventh 
year  of  Henry  the  Eighth  the  course  was  entirely  altered. 
With  a  preamble  stating  the  entire  and  perfect  rights  of  the 
Crown  of  England,  it  gave  to  the  Welsh  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  English  subjects.  A  political  order  was  estab- 
lished ;  the  military  power  gave  way  to  the  civil ;  the  Marches 
were  turned  into  Counties.  But  that  a  nation  should  have  a 
right  to  English  liberties,  and  yet  no  share  at  all  in  the 
fundamental  security  of  these  liberties  —  the  grant  of  their 
own  property  —  seemed  a  thing  so  incongruous,  that,  eight 
years  after,  that  is,  in  the  thirty-fifth  of  that  reign,  a  com- 
plete and  not  ill-proportioned  representation  by  counties  and 
boi'oughs  was  bestowed  upon  Wales  by  Act  of  Parliament. 
From  that  moment,  as  by  a  charm,  the  tumults  subsided ; 
obedience  was  restored ;  peace,  order,  and  civilization  fol- 
lowed in  the  train  of  liberty.  When  the  day-star  ^  of  the 
English  Constitution  had  arisen  in  their  hearts,  all  was 
harmony  within  and  without  — 

—  "  sinml  alba  nautis  ' 
Stella  refulsit, 

1  day-star.     See  2  Pet.  i.  19. 

^  simul  alba  nautis  ;  a  quotation  from  Horace,  Ode  1. 
12-27-32.  Freely  translated  it  means  :  As  soon  as  the  bright 
star  has  gleamed  forth  to  the  .sailors,  the  troubled  water  recedes 


I  ''    ' 


50 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


Defluit  Aaxis  agitatus  humor ; 
Concidunt  venti,  fugiuntque  nubes, 
Et  minax  (quod  sic  voluere)  ponto 
Unda  recuTiibit." 

84.  The  very  same  year  the  County  Palatine  *  of  Chestei 
received  the  same  relief  from  its  oppressions  and  the  same 
remedy  to  its  disorders.  Before  this  time  Chester  was  lit- 
tle less  distempered  than  Wales.  The  inhabitants,  without 
rights  themselves,  were  the  jfittest  to  destroy  the  rights  of 
others  ;  and  from  thence  Richard  the  Second  drew  the  stand 
ing  army  of  archers  with  which  for  a  time  he  oppressed 
England.  The  people  of  Chester  applied  to  Parliament  in 
■\  petition  penned  as  I  shall  read  to  you  :  — 

36.  "  To  the  King,  our  Sovereign  Lord,  in  most  humble  wise 
shewen  unto  your  excellent  Majesty  the  inhabitants 
of  your  Grace's  County  Palatine  of  Chester  :  (1)  That 
where  the  said  County  Palatine  of  Chester  is  and  hath 
been  always  hitherto  exempt,  excluded,  and  separated 
out  and  from  your  High  Court  of  Parliament,  to  have 
any  Knights  and  Burgesses  within  the  said  Court ;  by 
reason  whereof  the  said  inhabitants  have  hitherto  sus- 
tained manifold  disherisons,^  losses,  and  damages,  as 
well  in  their  lands,  goods,  and  bodies,  as  in  the  good, 
civil,  and  politic  governance  and  maintenance  of  the 
commonwealth  of  their  said  county ;  (2)  And  foras- 
much as  the  said  inhabitants  have  alwaj's  hitherto  been 
boupf*  ^'■,  the  Acts  and  Statutes  made  and  ordained 
by  your  said  Highness  and  your  most  noble  progeni- 
tors, by  authority  of  the  said  Court,  as  far  forth  af 
other  countieii,  cities,  and  boroughs  have  bca,  that 

trom  the  rocks,  the  winds  die  away,  and  the  clouds  scatter.  And 
because  they  [the  gods]  have  so  willed,  the  threatening  wave 
subsides  upon  the  deep. 

'  County  Palatine  =.  a  county  in  England  in  which  the 
count  or  owner  had  within  his  domain  the  power  of  a  king.  The 
word  Palatine  is  the  English  form  of  the  Latin  "  Palatinus,"  be- 
longing to  the  king,  or  to  the  Palatine  Hill. 

'^  disherisons  =  disinheritance. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       5l 

have  had  their  Knights  and  Burgesses  within  youx*  said 
Court  of  Parliament,  and  yet  have  had  neither  Knight 
ne  *  Burgess  there  for  the  said  County  Palatine ;  the 
said  inhabitants,  for  lack  thereof,  have  been  often- 
tiuies  touched  and  grieved  with  Acts  and  Statutes 
made  within  the  said  Court,  as  well  derogatory  unto 
the  most  ancient  jurisdictions,  liberties,  and  privileges 
of  your  said  County  Palatine,  as  prejudicial  unto  the 
commonwealth,  quietness,  rest,  and  peace  of  youi 
Grace's  most  bounden  subjects  inhabiting  witb'a  the 
same." 


86.  What  did  Parliament  with  this  audacious  address  ?  — 
Reject  it  as  a  libel  ?  Treat  it  as  an  affront  to  government  ? 
Spurn  it  as  a  derogation  from  the  rights  of  legislature? 
Did  they  toss  it  over  the  table  ?  Did  they  burn  it  by  the 
hands  of  the  common  hangman  ?  —  They  took  the  petition 
of  grievance,  all  rugged  as  it  was,  witb.oiit  softening  or  tem- 
perament,'^ unpurged  of  the  original  bitterness  and  indigna- 
tion of  complaint  —  they  made  it  the  very  preamble  to  their 
Act  of  redress,  and  consecrated  its  principle  to  all  ages  in 
the  sanctuary  of  legislation. 

87.  Here  is  my  third  example.  It  was  attended  with  the 
success  of  the  two  former.  Chester,  civilized  as  well  as 
Wales,  has  demonstrated  that  freedom,  and  not  servitude, 
is  the  cure  of  anarchy  ;  as  religion,  and  not  atheism,  is  the 
true  remedy  for  superstition.  Sir,  this  pattern  of  Chester 
was  followed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second  with  re« 
gard  to  the  County  Palatine  of  IJirham,  which  is  my  fourth 
example.  This  county  had  long  lain  out  of  the  pale  ^  of 
free  legislation.     So  scrupulously  was  the  example  of  Ches* 

^  ne  =  an  A,-S.  conjunction  meaning  nor. 
2  temperament ;  used  in  the  sense  of  "  modifieauon." 
•  out  of  the  pale.     The  English  pale  was  that  part  of  Ire* 
land  in  which  English  law  was  recognized   and   administered 
What  does  the  author  mean,  therefore,  by  the  metaphor  "  oui 
^  the  pale  of  free  legrislatiou  "  V 


62 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


ter  followed  that  tlie  style  of  the  preamble  is  nearly  the 
same  with  that  of  the  Chester  Act ;  and,  without  affecting 
the  abstract  extent  of  the  authority  of  Parliament,  it  recog 
niees  the  equity  of  not  suffering  any  considerable  district  in 
which  the  British  subjects  may  act  as  a  body,  to  be  taxed 
without  their  own  voice  in  the  grant. 

88.  Now  if  the  doctrines  of  policy  contained  in  these 
preambles,  and  the  force  of  these  examples  in  the  Acts  of 
Parliaments,  avail  anything,  what  can  be  said  against  ap- 
plying them  with  regard  to  America  ?  Are  not  the  people 
of  America  as  much  Englishmen  as  the  Welsh  ?  The  pre- 
amble of  the  Act  of  Henry  the  Eighth  says  the  Welsh 
speak  a  language  no  way  resembling  that  of  his  Majesty's 
English  subjects.  Are  the  Americans  not  as  numerous  ? 
If  we  may  trust  the  learned  and  accurate  Judge  Barring- 
ton's  account  of  North  Wales,  and  take  that  as  a  standard 
to  measure  the  rest,  there  is  no  comparison.  The  people 
cannot  amount  to  above  200,000  ;  not  a  tenth  }>art  of  the 
number  in  the  colonies.  Is  America  in  rebellion  ?  Wales 
was  hardly  ever  free  from  it.  Have  you  attempted  to  gov- 
ern America  by  penal  statutes  ?  You  made  fifteen  for 
Wales.  But  your  legislative  authority  is  perfect  with  re- 
gard to  America.  Was  it  less  perfect  in  Wales,  Chester, 
and  Durham  ?  But  America  is  virtually  represented. 
What !  does  the  electric  force  of  virtual  representation 
more  easily  pass  over  the  Atlantic  than  pervade  Wales, 
which  lies  in  your  neighborhood  —  or  than  Chester  and 
Durham,  surrounded  by  abundance  of  representation  tha* 
is  actual  and  palpable  ?  But,  Sir,  your  ancestors  thought 
this  sort  of  virtual  representation,  however  ample,  to  be 
totally  insufficient  for  the  freedom  of  the  inhabitants  ot 
territories  tliat  are  so  near,  and  comparatively  so  inconsid- 
erable. How  then  can  I  think  it  sufficient  for  those  which 
are  infinitely  greater,  and  infinitely  more  remote  ? 

89.  You  will  now,  Sir,  perhaps  imagine  that  I  am  on  the 
point  of  proposing  to  you  a  scheme  for  a  representation  of 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES. 


53 


the  colonies  in  Parliament.  Perhaps  I  might  be  inclined 
to  entertain  some  such  thought ;  but  a  great  flood  stops  me 
in  my  course.  Opposuit  7iaturaJ  —  I  cannot  remove  the 
eternal  barriers  of  the  creation.  The  thing,  in  that  mode, 
I  do  not  know  to  be  possible.  As  I  meddle  with  no  theory, 
I  do  not  absolutely  assert  the  impracticability  of  such  a  rep- 
resentation ;  but  I  do  not  see  my  way  to  it,  and  those  who 
have  been  more  confident  have  not  been  more  successful, 
However,  the  arm  of  public  benevolence  is  not  shortened,'' 
and  there  are  often  several  means  to  the  same  end.  What 
nature  has  disjoined  in  one  way,  wisdom  may  unite  in  an- 
other.  When  we  cannot  give  the  benefit  as  we  would  wish, 
let  us  not  refuse  it  altogether.  If  we  can  lot  give  the  prin- 
cipal, let  us  find  a  substitute.  But  how  ?  Where  ?  What 
substitute  ? 

90.  Fortunately  I  am  not  obliged,  for  the  ways  and 
means  of  this  substitute,  to  tax  my  own  unproductive  in- 
vention. I  am  not  even  obliged  to  go  to  the  rich  treasury 
of  the  fertile  f ramers  of  imaginary  commonwealths  '  —  not 
to  the  Republic  of  Plato,  not  to  the  Utopia  of  More,  not  to 
the  Oceana  of  Harrington.  It  is  before  me  —  it  is  at  my 
feet, 

"  And  the  rude  swain  * 
Treads  daily  on  it  with  his  clouted  shoon.*' 

I  only  wish  you  to  recognize,  for  the  theory,  the  ancient 
constitutional  policy  of  this  kingdom  with  regard  to  repre- 
sentation, as  that  policy  has  been  declared  in  Acts  of  Parlia* 
ment ;  and  as  to  the  practice,  to  return  to  that  mode  which 

*  Opposuit  natura  =  nature  has  opposed.     Juvenal,  X.  152. 
2  arm  is  not  shortened.     An  allusion  to  Isaiah  lix.  1. 

'  imaginary  common-wealths  ;  three  works  of  fiction,  de- 
scribing a  state  of  society,  laws,  morals,  government,  altogether 
perfect  and  harmonious. 

*  and  the  rude  s^jwain  ;  a  quotation  from  Milton's  Comus^ 
lines  634,  63r»,  "and  the  dull  swain  treads  on  it  daily  with  his 
'•Iputed  shoon," 


54 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


a  uniform  experience  has  marked  out  to  you  as  best,  and  in 
which  you  walked  with  security,  advantage,  and  honor, 
until  the  year  1763. 

91.  My  Resolutions  therefore  mean  to  establish  the  equity 
[I.  thk  ^^^  justice  of  a  taxation  of  America  by  grant^ 
CoNCKsl  ^^^  "®*  ^y  i'niposition  ;  ^  to  mark  the  legal  corth- 
sioN.  petency  of  the  colony  Assemblies  for  the  support 
of  their  government  in  peace,  and  for  public  aids  in  time 
of  war ;  to  acknowledge  that  this  legal  competency  has 
had  a  dutiful  and  beneficial  exercise  ;  and  that  experience 
has  shown  the  benefit  of  their  grants,  and  the  futility  of 
Parliamentary  taxation  as  a  method  of  supply. 

92.  These  solid  truths  compose  six  fundamental  proposi- 
tions. There  are  three  more  Resolutions  corollary  to  these. 
If  you  admit  the  first  set,  you  can  hardly  reject  the  others. 
But  if  you  admit  the  first,  I  shall  be  far  from  solicitous 
whether  you  accept  or  refuse  the  last.  I  think  these  six 
massive  pillars  will  be  of  strength  sufficient  to  support  the 
temple  of  British  concord.  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I 
entertain  of  my  existence  that,  if  you  admitted  these,  you 
would  command  an  immediate  peace,  and,  with  but  tolera- 
ble future  management,  a  lasting  obedience*  in  America. 
1  am  not  arrogant  in  this  confident  assurance.  The  propo- 
sitions are  all  mere  matters  of  fact,  and  if  they  are  such 
facts  as  draw  irresistible  conclusions  even  in  the  stating,  this 
i»  the  power  of  truth,  and  not  any  management  of  mine. 

93.  Sir,  I  shall  open  the  whole  plan  to  you,  together  with 
such  observations  on  the  motions  as  may  tend  to  illustrate 
ihem  where  they  may  want  explanation. 


'  by  grant,  i.  e.,  by  the  grant  of  the  colonial  Assemblies 
themselves. 

*  by  imposition,  i.  e.,  by  means  of  a  tax  imposed  on  them 
by  Parliament. 

3  lasting  obedience.  Observe  how  frequently  throughout 
the  Speech  the  author  impresses  the  idea  of  the  importance  of  a 
lasting  obedience,  a  permanent  peace. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      56 

94.  The  first  is  a  Resolution : 

••That  the  Colonies  and  Plantations  of  Great  Britain  in  North 
America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  Governments,  and 
containing  two  millions  and  upwards  of  free  inhabitants, 
have  net  had  the  liberty  and  privilege  of  electing  and  send- 
ing any  Knights  and  Burgesses,  or  others,  to  represent  tnem 
in  the  High  Court  of  Parliament." 

95.  This  is  a  plain  matter  of  fact,  necessary  to  be  laid 
4own,  and  (excepting  the  description)  it  is  laid  down  in  the 
language  of  the  Constitution  ;  it  is  taken  nearly  verbatim 
from  Acts  of  Parliament. 

96.  The  second  is  like  unto  the  first  — 

'*  That  the  said  Colonies  and  Plantations  have  been  liable  to, 
and  bouuden  by,  several  subsidies,  payments,  rates,  and 
taxes  given  and  granted  by  Parliament,  though  the  said  Col- 
onies and  Plantations  have  not  their  Knights  and  Burgesses 
in  the  said  High  Court  of  Parliament,  of  their  own  election, 
to  represent  the  condition  of  their  country  ;  by  lack  whereof 
they  have  been  oftentimes  touched  and  grieved  by  subsidies 
given,  granted,  and  assented  to,  in  the  said  court,  in  a  man- 
ner prejudicial  to  the  commonwealth,  quietness,  rest,  and 
peace  of  the  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same." 

97.  Is  this  description  too  hot,  or  too  cold  ;  too  strong,  or 
too  weak  ?  Does  it  arrogate  too  much  to  the  supreme  legis- 
lature ?  Does  it  lean  too  much  to  the  claims  of  the  peo- 
ple? If  it  runs  into  any  of  these  errors,  the  fault  is  not 
mine.  It  is  the  language  of  your  own  ancient  Acts  of  Par 
liament. 

"  Non  meus  hie  sermo,^  sed  quae  prfecepit  Ofellus, 
Kusticna,  abnormis  sapiens." 

It  is  the  genuine  produce  of   the   ancient,  rustic,  manly^ 
homebred  sense  of  this  country.  —  I  did  not  dare  to  rub 

1  Non  meus  hie  sermo  ;  a  quotation  from  Horace,  Lib.  H 
Sat.  II.  2-3,  meaning,  "  This  language  is  not  mine,  but  that  whici 
Ofellus  taught :  rustic,  but  wise  beyond  what  is  usual." 


66 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


'M    \ 


off  a  particle  of  the  venerable  rust  that  rather  adorns  and 
preserves,  tlian  destroys,  the  metal.  It  would  be  a  profa- 
nation to  touch  with  a  tool  the  stones  which  construct  the 
sacred  altar  of  peace.  I  would  not  violate  with  modern 
polish  the  ingenuous  and  noble  roughness  of  these  truly 
Constitutional  materials.  Above  all  things,  I  was  resolved 
not  to  be  guilty  of  tampering,  the  odious  vice  of  restless  and 
unstable  minds.  I  put  my  foot  in  the  tracks  of  our  fore- 
fathers, where  I  can  m  ither  wander  nor  stumble.  Deter- 
mining to  fix  articles  of  peace,  I  was  resolved  not  to  be 
wise  beyond  what  was  written  ;  ^  I  was  resolved  to  use 
nothing  else  than  the  form  of  sound  words,  to  let  others 
abound  in  their  own  sense,  and  carefully  to  abstain  from 
all  expressions  of  my  own.  What  the  law  has  said,  I  say. 
In  all  things  else  I  am  silent.  I  have  no  organ  but  for  her 
words.     This,  if  it  be  not  ingenious,  I  am  sure  is  safe. 

98.  There  are  indeed  words  expressive  of  grievance  in 
this  second  Resolution,  which  those  who  are  resolved  always 
to  be  in  the  right  will  deny  to  contain  matter  of  fact,  as 
applied  to  the  present  case,  although  Parliament  thought 
them  true  with  regard  to  the  counties  of  Chester  and  Dur- 
ham. They  will  deny  that  the  Americans  were  ever 
*'  touched  and  grieved  "  with  the  taxes.  If  they  consider 
nothing  in  taxes  but  their  weight  as  pecuniary  impositions, 
tliere  might  be  some  pretence  for  this  denial ;  but  men  may 
be  sorely  touched  and  deeply  grieved  in  their  privileges,  as 
well  as  in  their  purses.  Men  may  lose  little  in  projierty 
by  the  act  which  takes  away  all  their  freedom.  When  a 
man  is  robbed  of  a'  trifle  on  the  highway,  it  is  not  the  two- 
pence lost  that  constitutes  the  capital  outrage.  This  is  not 
confined  to  privileges.  Even  ancient  indulgences,  with- 
drawn without  offence  on  the  part  of  those  who  enjoyed 
such  favors,  operate  as  grievances.  But  were  the  Ameri- 
cans then  not  touched  and  grieved  by  the  taxes,  in  some 
measure,  .merely  as  taxes  ?     If  so,  why  were  they  almost 

'  V7hat  Tvas  written.    See  1  Cor.  iv.  6. 


ii 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      67 

all  either  wholly  repealed,  or  exceedingly  reduced  ?  Were 
they  not  touched  and  grieved  even  hy  the  regulating  duties 
of  the  sixth  of  George  the  Second  ?  ^  Else,  why  were  the 
(hities  first  reduced  to  one  third  in  17(54,  and  afterwards  to 
a  third  of  that  third  in  tlie  year  1766  ?  Were  they  not 
touched  and  grieved  by  the  Stamp  Act  ?  I  sliall  say  they 
were,  until  that  tax  is  revived.  Were  they  not  touched  and 
grieved  by  the  duties  of  1767,  which  were  likewise  repealed, 
and  which  Lord  Hillsborough  tells  you,  for  the  Ministry, 
were  laid  contrary  to  the  true  principle  of  commerce  ?  Is 
not  the  assurance  given  by  that  noble  person  to  the  colonies 
of  a  resolution  to  lay  no  more  taxes  on  them  an  admission 
that  taxes  would  touch  and  grieve  them  ?  Is  not  the  Reso- 
lution of  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon,  now  standing  on 
your  Journals,  the  strongest  of  all  proofs  that  Parliamentary 
subsidies  really  touched  and  grieved  them  ?  Else  why  all 
these  changes,  modifications,  repeals,  assurances,  and  reso- 
lutions ? 

99.  The  next  proposition  is  — 

*'  That,  from  the  distance  of  the  said  Colonies,  and  from  other 
circumstances,  no  method  liath  hitherto  been  devised  for 
procuring  a  representation  in  ParUament  for  the  said 
Colonies." 

100.  This  is  an  assertion  of  a  fact.  I  go  no  further  on 
the  paper,  though,  in  my  private  judgment,  a  useful  repre- 
sentation is  impossible  —  I  am  sure  it  is  not  desired  by 
them,  nor  ought  it  perhaps  by  us  —  but  I  abstain  from 
opinions. 

101.  The  fourth  Resolution  is  — 

"That  each  of  the  said  Colonics  hath  within  itself  a  body, 
chosen  in  part,  or  in  the  whole,  by  the  freemen,  freeholders, 
or  other  free  inhab-tants  thereof,  commonly  called  the  Gen-, 
eral  Assembly,  or  General  Court  ;  with  powers  legally  to 
raise,  levy,  and  assess,  according   to  the  several  usage  of 

*  the  Sixth  of  George  the  Second,  i.  e,,  the  sixth  Act. 


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58 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


such  colonies,  duties  and  taxes  towards  defraying  all  sorts 
of  public  services." 

102.  This  competence  in  the  colony  Assemblies  is  car- 
Cain.  It  is  proved  by  the  whole  tenor  of  their  Acts  of 
Supply  in  all  the  Assemblies,  in  which  the  constant  style  of 
granting  is,  "  an  aid  to  his  Majesty  ;  "  ^  and  Acts  granting 
to  the  crown  have  regularly  for  near  a  century  passed  the 
public  offices  without  dispute.  Those  who  have  been 
pleased  paradoxically  to  deny  this  right,  holding  that  none 
but  the  British  Parliament  can  grant  to  the  crown,  are 
wished  to  look  to  what  is  done,  not  only  in  the  colonies, 
but  in  Ireland,  in  one  uniform  unbroken  cenor  every  session. 
Sir,  I  am  surprised  that  this  doctrine  should  come  from 
8om3  of  the  law  servants  of  the  crown.  I  say  that  if  the 
crown  could  be  responsible,  his  Maiesty  —  but  certainly 
the  Ministers,  —  and  even  these  law  officers  themselves 
through  whose  hands  the  Acts  passed,  biennially  in  Ireland, 
or  annually  in  the  colonies  —  are  in  an  habitual  course  of 
committing  impeachable  offences.  What  habitual  offenders 
have  been  all  Presidents  of  the  Council,  all  Secretaries 
of  State,  all  First  Lords  of  Trade,  all  Attorneys  and  all 
Solicitors-General !  However,  they  are  safe,  as  no  one 
impeaches  them  ;  and  there  is  no  ground  of  charge  against 
them  except  in  their  own  uriounded  theories. 

103.  The  fifth  Resolution  is  also  a  resolution  of  fact  — 

"  That  the  said  General  Assemblies,  General  Courts,  or  other 
bodies  legally  qualified  as  aforesaid,  have  at  sundry  times 
freely  granted  several  large  subsidies  and  public  aids  for 
his  Majesty's  service,  according  to  their  abilities,  when  re- 
quired thereto  by  letter  from  one  of  his  Majesty's  principal 
Sfccretaries  of  State  ;  and  that  their  right  to  grant  the 
same,  and   their  cheerfulness   and   sufficiency  in   the   said 

V  1  aid  to  his  Majesty  ;  aids  were  originally  grants  of  money 
made  by  tenants  to  their  lords  of  their  own  free  will,  and  on 
particular  occasions.  They  afterwards  became  real  taxes.  The 
word  is  here  used  in  its  original  sense. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       69 

grants,  have  been  at  sundry  times  acknowledged  hy  Parlia- 
ment." 

104.  To  say  nothing  of  their  great  expenses  in  the  Indian 
f^ars,  and  not  to  take  their  exertion  in  foreign  ones  so  high 
as  the  supplies  in  the  year  1695  —  not  to  go  back  to  their 
public  contributions  in  the  year  1710  —  I  shall  begin  to 
travel  only  where  the  Journals  give  me  light,  resolving  to 
deal  in  nothing  but  fact,  authenticated  by  Parliamentary 
record,  and  to  build  myself  wholly  on  that  solid  basis. 

105.  On  the  4th  of  April,  1748,  a  Committee  of  this 
House  came  to  the  following  resolution  : 

"  Resolved  :  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Committee  that  it  is 
just  and  reasonable  that  the  several  Provinces  and  Colonies 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and 
Rhode  Island,  be  reimbursed  the  expenses  they  have  been 
at  in  taking  and  securing  to  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain  the 
Island  of  Cape  Breton  and  its  dependencies." 

106.  These  expenses  were  immense  for  such  colonies. 
They  were  above  £200,000  sterling ;  money  first  raised  and 
advanced  on  their  public  credit. 

107.  On  the  28th  of  January,  1756,  a  message  from  the 
King  came  to  us,  to  this  effect : 

"  His  Majesty,  being  sensible  of  the  zeal  and  vigor  with  which 
his  faithful  subjects  of  certain  Colonies  in  North  America 
have  exerted  themselves  in  defence  of  his  Majesty's  just 
rights  and  possessions,  recommends  it  to  this  House  to  take 
the  same  into  their  consideration,  and  to  enable  his  Majesty 
to  give  them  such  assistance  as  may  be  a  proper  reward  and 
encouragement." 

108.  On  the  3d  of  February,  1756,  the  House  came  to  a 
suitable  Resolution,  expref  sed  in  words  nearly  the  same  as 
those  of  the  message,  but  with  the  further  addition,  that  the 
money  then  voted  was  as  an  encouragement  to  the  colonies 
to  exert  themselves  with  vigor.  It  will  not  be  necessary  to 
go  through  all  the  testimonies  which  your  own  records  have 


60 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


m 


given  to  the  truth  of  my  Resolutions.     I  will  only  refer  you 
to  the  places  in  the  Journals  : 

Vol.   xxvii.  —  16th  and  19th  May,  1757. 

Vol.  xxviii.  —  June  1st,  1758;  April  26th   and  30th,  1759; 

March  26th  and  31st,  and  April  28th,  1760  | 

Jan.  9th  and  20th,  1761. 
Vol.    xxix.  —  Jan.  22d  and  26th,  1762  ;  March  14th  and  17th 

1763. 

109.  Sir,  here  is  the  repeated  acknowledgment  of  Par- 
liament that  the  colonies  not  only  gave,  but  gave  to  satiety. 
This  nation  has  formally  acknowledged  two  things :  first, 
that  the  colonies  had  gone  beyond  their  abilities,  Parlia- 
ment having  thought  it  necessary  to  reimburse  them ; 
secondly,  that  they  had  acted  legally  and  laudably  in  their 
grants  of  money,  and  their  maintenance  of  troops,  since  the 
compensation  is  expressly  given  as  reward  and  encourage- 
ment. Reward  is  not  bestowed  for  acts  that  are  unlawful ; 
and  encouragement  is  not  held  out  to  things  that  deserve 
reprehension.  My  Resolution  therefore  does  nothing  more 
than  collect  into  one  proposition  what  is  scattered  through 
your  Journals.  I  give  you  nothing  but  your  own ;  and 
you  cannot  refuse  in  the  gross  v/hat  you  have  so  often 
acknowledged  in  detail.  The  admission  of  this,  which  'will 
be  so  honorable  to  them  and  to  you,  will,  indeed,  be  mortal 
to  all  the  miserable  stories  by  which  the  passions  of  the 
misguided  people  have  been  engaged  in  an  unhappy  system. 
The  people  heard,  indeed,  from  the  beginning  of  these 
disputes,  one  thing  continually  dinned  in  their  ears,  that 
reason  and  justice  demanded  that  the  Americans,  who  paid 
no  taxes,  should  be  compelled  to  contribute.  How  did  that 
fact  of  their  paying  nothing  stand  when  the  taxing  sys- 
tem began  ?  When  Mr.  Grenville  ^  began  to  form  his 
system  of  American  revenue,  he  stated  in  this  House  that 
the  colonies  were  then  in  debt  two  millions  six  hundred 

^  Mr.  Qrenville  ;  George  Grenville,  said  to  be  the  author  of 
the  Stamp  Act. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      61 


thousand  pounds  sterling  money,  and  was  of  opinion  they 
would  discharge  that  debt  in  forr  years.  On  this  state,^ 
those  untaxed  people  were  actually  subject  to  the  payment 
of  taxes  to  the  amount  of  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
a  year.  In  fact,  however,  Mr.  Grenville  was  mistaken. 
The  funds  given  for  sinking  the  debt  did  not  prove  quite 
so  ample  as  both  the  colonies  and  he  expected.  The 
calculation  was  too  sanguine ;  the  reduction  was  not  com 
pleted  till  some  ye«rs  after,  and  at  different  umes  in  differ- 
ent colonies.  However,  the  taxes  after  the  war  continued 
too  great  to  bear  any  addition,  with  prudence  or  propriety ; 
and  when  the  burthens  imposed  in  consequence  of  former 
requisitions  were  discharged,  our  tone  became  too  high  to 
resort  again  to  requisition.  No  colony,  since  that  time, 
ever  has  had  any  requisition  whatsoever  made  to  it 

110.  We  set  the  sense  of  the  crown,  and  the  sense  of 
Parliament,  on  the  productive  nature  of  a  revenue  by 
grant.  Now  search  the  same  Journals  for  the  produce  of 
the  revenue  by  imposition.  Where  is  it  ?  Let  us  know 
the  volume  and  the  ps-ge.  What  is  the  gross,  what  is  the 
net  produce  ?  To  what  service  is  it  applied  ?  How  have 
you  appropriated  its  surplus  ?  What !  Can  none  of  the 
many  skilful  index-makers  that  we  are  now  employing  find 
any  trace  of  it  ?  —  Well,  let  them  and  that  rest  together. 
But  are  the  Journals,  which  say  nothing  of  the  revenue,  as 
silent  on  the  discontent  ?  Oh  no  !  a  child  may  find  it.  It 
is  the  melancholy  burthen  and  blot  of  every  page. 

111.  I  think,  then,  I  am,  from  those  Journals,  justified 
in  the  sixth  and  last  Resolution,  which  is  —  t 

"  That  it  hath  been  found  by  experience  that  the  manner  of 
granting  the  said  supplies  and  aids,  by  the  said  General 
Assemblies,  hath  been  more  agreeable  to  the  said  Colonies, 
and  more  beneficial  and  conducive  to  the  public  service, 
than  the  mode  of  giving  and  granting  aids  in  Parliament 
to  be  raised  and  paid  in  the  said  Colonies." 

^  on  this  state  =  statement. 


i^' 


62 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


I 


OLUSION, 

S 113  to 
end. 


112.  This  makes  the  whole  of  the  fundamental  part  of 
the  plan.  The  conclusion  is  irresistible.  You  cannot  say 
that  you  were  driven  by  any  necessity  io  an  exercise  of 
the  utmost  rights  of  legislature.  You  cannot  assert  that 
you  took  on  yourselves  the  task  of  imposing  colony  taxes 
from  the  want  of  another  legal  body  that  is  competent  to 
the  purpose  oi  supplying  the  exigencies  of  the  state  with- 
out wounding  the  prejudices  of  the  people.  Neither  is  it 
true  that  the  body  so  qualified,  and  having  that  compe-" 
tence,  had  neglected  the  duty.  • 

113.  The  question  now  on  all  this  accumulated  matter, 
The  Con-      is :  whether  you  will  choose  to  abide  by  a  profit- 
able experience,  or  a  mischievous  theory  ;  whether 
you   choose   to    build   on   imagination,    or   fact ; 

whether  you  prefer  enjoyment,  or  hope  ;  satisfaction  in  your 
subjects,  or  discontent  ? 

114.  If  these  propositions  are  accepted,  everything  which 

has  been  made  to  enforce  a  contrary  system  must, 
tioM '°^"'  I  take  it  for  granted,  fall  along  with  it.  On  that 
b'*'Buriw      ground,  I  have  drawn  the  following  Resolution, 

which,  when  it  comes  to  be  moved,  will  naturally 
be  divided  in  a  proper  manner:        r 

**  That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  Act  made  in  the  seventh 
year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  An  Act 
for  granting  certain  duties  in  the  British  Colonies  and  Plan- 
tations in  America  ;  for  allowing  a  drawback  ^  of  the  duties 
of  customs  npon  the  exportation  from  this  Kingdom  of 
coffee  and  cocoa-nuts  of  the  produce  of  the  said  Colonies 
or  Plantations  ;  for  discontinuing  the  drawbacks  payable 
on  china  earthenware  exported  to  America  ;  and  for  more 
effectually  preventing  the  clandestine  running  of  goods  in 
the  said  Colonies  and  Plantations.  And  that  it  may  be 
proper  to  repeal  an  Act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  An  Act  to  disoou- 

*  dra^v^backa  were  sums  of  money  allowed  tc  a  merchant  on 
the  re-exportation  of  goods  upon  which  duties  had  been  paid. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       63 


tinue,  in  such  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are  therein 
mentioned,  the  landing  and  discharging,  lading  or  shipping 
of  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  at  the  town  and  within 
the  harbor  of  Boston,  in  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
in  North  America.  And  that  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an 
Act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  his  present 
Majesty,  intitled,  An  Act  for  the  impartial  administration 
of  justice  in  the  cases  of  persons  questioned  for  any  acts 
done  by  them  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  or  for  the  sup- 
pression of  riots  and  tumults,  in  the  Province  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  in  New  England.  And  that  it  may  be  proper 
to  repeal  an  Act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign 
of  his  present  Majesty,  intitled.  An  Act  for  the  better 
regulating  of  the  Government  of  the  Province  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England.  And  also  that  it 
may  be  proper  to  explain  and  amend  an  Act  made  in  the 
thirty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth, 
intitled,  An  Act  for  the  Trial  of  Treasons  committed  out  of 
the  King's  Dominions." 

115.  I  wish,  Sir,  to  repeal  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  because 
—independently  of  the  dangerous  precedent  of  suspending 
the  rights  of  the  subject  during  the  King's  pleasure  —  it 
was  passed,  as  I  apprehend,  with  less  regularity  and  on 
more  partial  principles  than  it  ought.  The  corporation  of 
Boston  was  not  heard  before  it  was  condemned.  Other 
towns,  full  as  guilty  as  she  was,  have  not  had  their  portp 
blocked  up.  Even  the  Restraining  BilP  of  the  present 
session  does  not  go  to  the  length  of  the  Boston  Port  Act. 
The  same  ideas  of  prudence  which  induced  you  not  to 
extend  equal  punishment  to  equal  guilt,  even  when  you 
were  punishing,  induced  me,  who  mean  not  to  chastise,  but 
to  reconcile,  to  be  satisfied  with  the  punishment  already 
partially  inflicted. 

116.  Ideas  of  prudence  and  accommodation  to  circum- 
stances prevent  you  from  taking  away  the  charters  of  Con> 

^  Restraining  Bill.  See  note  on  grand  penal  bill,  para- 
graph  1. 


' 


64 


BPMUND  BURKE. 


necticut  and  Rhode  Island,  as  you  have  taken  away  that  oi 
Massachusetts  Colony,  though  the  crown  has  far  less  power 
in  the  two  former  provinces  than  it  enjoyed  in  the  latter, 
and  though  the  abuses  have  been  full  as  great,  and  as 
flagrant,  in  the  exempted  as  in  the  punished.  The  same 
reasons  of  prudence  and  accommodation  have  weight  with 
me  in  restoring  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Be- 
sides, Sir,  the  Act  which  changes  the  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts is  in  many  particulars  so  exceptionable  that  if  I  did 
not  wish  absolutely  to  repeal,  I  would  by  all  means  desire 
to  alter  it,  as  several  of  its  provisions  tend  to  the  subversion 
of  all  public  and  private  justice.  Such,  among  others,  is 
the  power  in  the  Governor  to  change  the  sheriff  at  his 
pleasure,  and  to  make  a  new  returning  officer  for  every 
special  cause.  It  is  shameful  to  behold  such  a  regulation 
standing  among  English  laws. 

117.  The  Act  for  bringing  persons  accused  of  commit- 
ting murder,  under  the  orders  of  government  to  England 
for  trial,  is  but  temporary.  That  Act  has  calculated  the 
probable  duration  of  our  quarrel  with  the  colonies,  and  is 
accommodated  to  that  supposed  duration.  I  would  hasten 
the  happy  moment  of  reconciliation,  and  therefore  must,  on 
my  principle,  get  rid  of  that  most  justly  obnoxious  Act. 

118.  The  Act  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  for  the  Trial  of 
Treasons,  I  do  not  mean  to  take  away,  but  to  confine  it  to 
its  proper  bounds  and  original  intention ;  to  make  it  ex- 
pressly for  trial  of  ti'easons  —  and  the  greatest  treasons 
may  be  committed  —  in  places  where  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  crown  does  not  extend. 

119.  Haying  guarded  the  privileges  of  local  legislature, 
I  would  next  secure  to  the  colonies  a  fair  and  unbiased 
judicature,  for  which  purpose,  Sir,  I  propose  the  following 
Resolution : 

"  That,  from  the  time  when  the  General  Assembly  or  General 
Court  of  any  Colony  or  Plantation  in  North  America  shall 
have  appointed  by  Act  of  Assembly,  duly  confirmed,  a  set- 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       65 

tied  salary  to  the  offices  of  the  Chief  Justice  and  othei 
Judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  it  may  be  proper  that  the 
said  Chief  Justice  and  other  Judges  of  the  Superior  Courts 
of  such  Colony  shall  hold  his  and  their  office  and  offices 
during  their  good  behavior,  and  shall  not  be  removed  there- 
from but  when  the  said  removal  sh?ll  be  adjudged  by  his 
Majesty  in  Council,  upon  a  hearing  on  complaint  from  the 
General  Assembly,  or  on  a  complaint  from  the  Governor, 
or  Council,  or  the  Kouse  of  Representatives  severally,  or 
of  the  Colony  in  which  the  said  Chief  Justice  and  other 
Judges  have  exercised  the  said  offices." 

120.  The  next  Resolution  relates  to  the  Courts  of  Ad' 
miralty.^     It  is  this  : 

"  That  it  may  be  proper  to  regulate  the  Courts  of  Admiralty 
or  Vice-Admiralty  authorized  by  the  fifteenth  Chapter  of 
the  Fourth  of  George  the  Third,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
make  the  same  more  commodious  to  those  who  sue,  or  are 
sued,  in  the  said  Courts,  and  to  provide  for  the  more  decent 
mainteLance  of  the  Judges  in  the  same." 

121.  Theue  courts  I  do  not  wish  to  take  away ;  they 
are  in  themselves  proper  establishments.  This  court  is  one 
of  the  capital  securities  of  the  Act  of  Navigation.  The 
extent  of  its  jurisdiction,  indeed,  has  been  increased,  but 
this  is  altogether  as  proper,  and  is  indeed  on  many  ac- 
counts more  eligible,  where  new  powers  were  wanted, 
than  a  court  absolutely  new.  But  courts  incommodiously 
situated,  in  effect,  deny  justice  ;  and  a  court  partaking  in 
the  fruits  of  its  own  condemnation  is  a  robber.  The  Con- 
gress complain,  and  complain  justly,  of  this  grievance. 

122.  These  are  the  three  consequential  propositions.  I 
have  thought  of  two  or  three  more,  but  they  come  rather 
too  near  detail,  and  to  the  province  of  executive  govern- 
ment, which  I  wish  Parliament  always  to  superintend, 
never  to  assume.  If  the  first  six  are  granted,  congruity 
wrill  carry  the  latter  three.     If  not,  the  things  that  remain 

^  Admiralty  Courts  had  jurisdiction  in  maritime  cases^ 


66 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


unrepealed  will  be,  I  hope,  rather  unseemly  incumbrances 
on  the  building,  than  very  materially  detrimental  to  its 
strength  and  stability. 

123.  Here,  Sir,  I  should  close ;   but  I  plainly  perceive 

some  objections  remain  which  I  ought,  if  possible, 
tionB  an-       to  remove.     Tlie  first  will  be  that  in  resorting  to 

flwfirod 

the  doctrine  of  our  ancestors  as  contained  in  the 
preamble  to  the  Chester  Act,  I  prove  too  much ;  that  the 
grievance  from  a  want  of  representation,  stated  in  that 
preamble,  goes  to  the  whole  of  legislation  as  well  as  to  taxa- 
tion ;  and  that  the  colonies,  grounding  themselves  upon  that 
doctrine,  will  apply  it  to  all  parts  of  legislative  authority. 

124.  To  this  objection,  with  all  possible  deference  and 
humility,  and  wishing  as  little  as  any  man  living  to  impair 
the  smallest  particle  of  our  supreme  authority,  I  answer, 
that  the  words  are  words  of  Parliament  and  not  mine, 
and  that  all  false  and  inconclusive  inferences  drawn  from 
them  are  not  mine,  for  I  heartily  disclaim  any  such  infer- 
ence. I  haye  chosen  the  words  of  an  Act  of  Parliament 
which  Mr.  Grenville,  surely  a  tolerably  zealous  and  very 
judicious  advocate  for  the  sovereignty  of  Parliament,  for- 
merly moved  to  have  read  at  your  table  in  confirmation  of 
his  tenets.  It  is  true  that  Lord  Chatham  considered  these 
preambles  as  declaring  strongly  in  favor  of  his  opinions. 
He  was  a  no  less  powerful  advocate  for  the  privileges  of 
the  Ame  'leans.  Ought  I  not  from  hence  to  presunje  that 
these  preambles  are  as  favorable  as  possible  to  both,  when 
properly  understood ;  favorable  both  to  the  rights  of  Par- 
liament, and  to  the  privilege  of  the  dependencies  of  this 
crown  ?  But,  Sir,  the  object  of  grievance  in  my  Resolu- 
tion I  have  not  taken  from  the  Chester,  but  from  the 
Durham  Act,  which  confines  the  hardship  of  want  of  repre- 
sentation to  the  case  of  subsidies,  and  which  therefore  falls 
in  exactly  with  the  case  of  the  colonies.  But  whether  the 
unrepresented  counties  were  de  jure  or  de  facto  bound,  the 
preambles  do  not  accurately  distinguish,  nor  indeed  was  it 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       67 

necessary ;  for,  whether  de  jure  or  de  facto,  the  Legisla- 
ture thought  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxing  as  of 
right,  or  as  of  fact  without  right,  equally  a  grievance,  and 
equally  oppressive. 

126.  I  do  not  know  that  the  colonies  have,  in  any  gen- 
eral way,  or  in  any  cool  hour,  gone  much  beyond  the 
demand  of  immunity  in  relation  to  taxes.  It  is  not  fair  to 
judge  of  the  temper  or  dispositions  of  any  man,  or  any  set 
of  men,  when  they  are  composed  and  at  vest,  from  thei/ 
conduct  or  their  expressions  in  a  state  of  disturbance  and 
irritation.  It  is  besides  a  very  great  mistake  to  imagine 
that  mankind  follow  up  practically  any  speculative  prin- 
ciple, either  of  government  or  of  freedom,  as  far  as  it  will 
go  in  argument  and  logical  illation.  We  Englishmen  stop 
very  short  of  the  principles  upon  which  we  support  any 
given  part  of  our  Constitution,  or  even  the  whole  of  it 
together.  I  could  easily,  if  I  had  not  already  tired  you, 
give  you  very  striking  and  convincing  instances  of  it.  This 
is  nothing  but  what  is  natural  and  proper.  All  govern- 
ment, indeed  every  human  benefit  and  enjoyment,  every 
virtue,  and  every  prudent  act,  is  fr  anded  on  compromise 
and  barter.  We  balance  inconveniences ;  we  give  and 
take ;  we  remit  some  rights,  that  we  may  enjoy  others ; 
and  we  choose  rather  to  be  happy  citizens  than  subtle  dis- 
putants. As  we  must  give  away  some  natural  liberty  to 
enjoy  civil  advantages,  so  we  must  sacrifice  some  civil 
liberties  for  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  com 
nuinion  and  fellowship  of  a  great  empire.  But,  in  all  fair 
dealings,  the  thing  bought  must  bear  some  proportion  to 
the  purchase  paid.  None  will  barter  away  the  immediate 
jewel  ^  of  his  soul.  Though  a  great  house  is  apt  to  make 
slaves  haughty,  yet  it  is  purchasing  a  part  of  the  artificial 
importance  of  a  great  empire  too  dear  to  pay  for  it  all  es- 
sential lights  and  all  the  intrinsic  dignity  of  human  nature. 
None  of  us  who  would  not  risk  his  life  rather  than  fall 

1  Immediate  je^  tl.    See  Othello,  III.  3,  line  156. 


68 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


under  a  government  purely  arbitrary.  But  although  there 
are  some  amongst  us  who  think  our  Constitution  wants 
many  improvements  to  make  it  a  complete  system  of  lib- 
erty, perhaps  none  who  are  of  that  opinion  would  think 
it  right  to  aim  at  such  improvement  by  disturbing  his  coun- 
try, and  risking  everything  that  is  dear  to  him.  In  every 
arduous  enterprise  we  consider  what  we  are  to  lose,  as  well 
as  what  we  are  to  gain ;  and  the  more  and  better  stake  of 
liberty  every  people  possess,  the  less  they  will  hazard  in 
a  vain  attempt  to  make  it  more.  These  are  the  cords  of 
wan}  Man  acts  from  adequate  motives  relative  to  his 
interest,  and  not  on  metaphysical  opeculations.  Aristotle, 
the  great  master  of  reasoning,  cautions  us,  and  with  great 
weight  and  propriety,  against  this  s})ecies  of  delusive  geo- 
metrical accuracy  in  moral  arguments  as  the  most  fallacious 
of  all  sophistry. 

126.  The  Americans  will  have  no  interest  contrary  to 
the  grandeur  and  glory  of  England,  when  they  are  not 
oppressed  by  the  weight  of  it ;  and  they  will  rather  be 
inclined  to  respect  the  acts  of  a  superintending  legislature 
when  they  see  them  the  acts  of  that  power  which  is  itself 
the  security,  not  the  rival,  of  their  secondary  importance. 
In  this  assurance  my  mind  most  perfectly  acquiesces,  and 
I  confess  I  feel  not  the  least  alarm  from  the  discontents 
which  are  to  arise  from  putting  people  at  their  ease,  nor  do 
I  apprehend  the  destruction  of  this  empire  from  giving,  by 
an  act  of  free  grace  and  indulgence,  to  tw^  millions  of  my 
fellow-citizens  some  share  of  those  rights  upon  which  I  have 
always  been  taught  to  value  myself. 

127.  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  this  power  of  granting, 
vested  in  American  assemblies,  would  dissolve  the  unity  of 
the  empire,  which  was  preserved  entire,  although  Wales, 
and  Chester,  and  Durham  were  added  to  it.  Truly,  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  do  not  know  what  this  unity  means,  nor  has  it 
ever  been  heard  of,  that  I  know,  in  the  constitutional  policy 

^  cords  of  man.    See  Hosea  vi.  4. 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      69 


i>f  this  country.  The  very  idea  of  subordination  of  parts 
excludes  this  notion  of  simple  and  undivided  unity.  Enej- 
land  is  the  head  ;  but  she  is  not  the  head  and  the  members 
too.  Ireland  has  ever  had  from  the  beginning  a  separate, 
but  not  an  independent,  legislature,  which,  far  from  dis- 
tracting, promoted  the  union  of  the  whole.  Everything 
was  sweetly  and  harmoniously  disposed  through  both  islands 
for  the  conservation  of  English  dominion,  and  the  communi- 
cation of  English  liberties.  I  do  not  see  that  the  same 
principles  might  not  be  carried  into  twenty  islands  and  with 
the  same  good  effect.  This  is  my  model  with  regard  to 
America,  as  far  as  the  internal  circumstances  of  the  two 
countries  are  the  same.  I  know  no  other  unity  of  this  em- 
pire than  I  can  draw  from  its  example  during  these  periods, 
when  it  seemed  to  my  poor  understanding  more  united  than 
it  is  now,  or  than  it  is  likely  to  be  by  the  present  methods. 

128.  But  since  1  speak  of  these  methods,  I  recollect,  Mr. 
Speaker,  almost  too  late,  that  I  promised,  before   „,  ^   ,  , 

^      ,  .  *  \   _  III.  Burke's 

I  finished,  to  say  something  of  the  proposition  of  objections 
the  noble  lord  on  the  floor,  which   has  been   so  North's 
lately  received  and  stands  on  your  Journals.     I 
must  be  deeply  concerned  whenever  it  is  my  misfortune  to 
continue  a  difference  with  the  majority  of  this  House  ;  but 
as  the  reasons  for  that  difference  ai'e  my  apology  for  thus 
troubling  you,  suffer  me  to  state  them  in  a  very  few  words. 
I  shall  compress  them  into  as  small  a  body  as  I  possibly 
can,  having  already  debated  that  matter  at  large  when  the 
question  was  before  the  Committee. 

129.  First,  then,  I  cannot  admit  that  proposition  of  a 
ransom  by  auction  ;  because  it  is  a  mere  project.  It  is  a 
thing  new,  unheard  of ;  supported  by  no  experience ;  jus- 
tified by  no  analogy  ;  without  example  of  our  ancestors, 
or  root  in  the  Constitution.  It  is  neither  regular  Parlia- 
mentary taxation,  nor  colony  grant.  Experimentum  in 
corpore  vili  ^  is  a  good  rule,  which  will  ever  make  me  adverse 

*  Experimentum  in  corpore  vili  :  "  The  experiment  should 
fje  in  a  worthless  body." 


70 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


to  any  trial  of  experiments  on  what  is  certainly  the  most 
valuable  of  all  subjects,  the  peace  of  tliis  empire. 

130.  Secondly,  it  is  an  experiment  which  must  be  fatal 
in  the  end  to  our  Constitution.  For  what  is  it  but  a  scheme 
for  taxing  the  colonies  in  the  ante-chamber  of  tlie  noble  lord 
and  his  successors  ?  To  settle  the  quotas  and  proportions 
in  this  House  is  clearly  impossible.  You,  Sir,  may  flatter 
yourself  you  shall  sit  a  state  auctioneer,  with  your  hammer 
in  your  hand,  and  knock  down  to  each  colony  as  it  bids. 
But  to  settle,  on  the  plan  laid  down  by  the  noble  lord,  the 
true  proportional  payment  for  four  or  five  and  twenty  gov- 
ernments according  to  the  absolute  and  the  relative  wealth 
of  each,  and  according  to  the  British  proportion  of  wealth 
aiid  burthen,  is  a  wild  and  chimerical  notion.  This  new 
taxation  must  therefore  come  in  by  the  back-door  of  the 
Constitution.  Each  quota  must  be  brought  to  this  House 
ready  formed  ;  you  can  neither  add  nor  alter.  You  must 
register  it.  You  can  do  nothing  further ;  for  on  what 
grounds  can  you  deliberate  either  before  or  after  the  propo- 
sition ?  You  cannot  hear  the  counsel  for  all  these  prov- 
inces, quarrelling  each  on  its  own  quantity  of  payment, 
and  its  proportion  to  others.  If  you  should  attempt  it,  the 
Committee  of  Provincial  Ways  and  Means,  or  by  whatever 
other  name  it  will  delight  to  be  called,  must  swallow  up  all 
the  time  of  Parliament. 

131.  Thirdly,  it  does  not  give  satisfaction  to  the  com 
plaint  of  the  colonies.  They  complain  that  they  are  taxed 
without  their  consent ;  you  answer,  that  you  will  fix  the 
sum  at  which  they  shall  be  taxed.  Tliat  is,  you  give  them 
the  vary  grievance  for  the  remedy.  You  tell  them,  indeed, 
that  you  will  leave  the  mode  to  themselves.  I  really  beg 
pardon  —  it  gives  me  pain  to  mention  it  —  but  you  nmst  be 
sensible  that  you  will  not  perform  this  part  of  the  compact. 
For,  suppose  the  colonies  were  to  lay  the  duties,  which 
furnished  their  contingent,  upon  the  importation  of  your 
manufactures,  you  know  you  would  never  suffer  such  a  tas 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.      71 


to  be  laid.  You  know,  too,  that  you  would  not  suffer  many 
other  modes  of  taxation  ;  so  that,  when  you  come  to  explain 
yourself,  it  will  be  found  that  you  will  neither  leave  to 
themselves  the  quantum  nor  the  mode,  nor  indeed  anything. 
The  whole  is  delusion  from  one  end  to  the  othor. 

132.  Fourthly,  this  method  of  ransom  by  auction,  unless 
it  be  universally  accepted,  will  plunge  you  into  great  and 
inextricable  difficulties.  In  what  year  of  our  Lord  are  the 
proportions  of  payments  to  be  settled  ?  To  say  nothing  of 
the  impossibility  that  colony  agents  'ihould  have  general 
powers  of  taxing  the  colonies  at  their  discretion,  consider,  I 
implore  you,  that  the  communication  by  special  messages 
and  orders  between  these  agents  and  their  constituents,  on 
each  variation  of  the  case,  when  the  parties  come  to  contend 
together  and  to  dispute  on  their  relative  proportions,  will  be 
a  matter  of  delay,  perplexity,  and  confusion  that  never  can 
have  an  end.  „  ,.•  .s^^,.:^:  ::'..<■: 

133.  If  all  the  colonies  do  not  appear  ut  the  outcry,  what 
is  the  condition  of  those  assemblies  who  offer,  by  them- 
selves or  their  agents,  to  tax  themselves  up  to  your  ideas 
of  their  proportion  ?  The  refractory  colonies  who  refuse  all 
composition  ^  will  reir.ain  taxed  only  to  your  old  impositions, 
which,  however  grievous  in  principle,  are  trifling  as  to  pro- 
ducticn.  The  obedient  colonies  in  this  scheme  are  heavily 
taxed ;  the  refractory  remain  unburdened.  What  will  ycu 
do  ?  Will  you  lay  i-ew  and  heavier  taxes  by  Parliament  on 
the  disobedient  ?  Pray  consider  in  what  way  you  can  do  iK 
You  are  perfectly  convinced  that,  in  the  way  of  taxing,  you 
can  do  nothing  but  at  the  ports.  Now  suppose  it  is  Vir- 
ginia that  refuses  to  appear  at  your  auction,  while  Maryland 
and  North  Carolina  bid  handsomely  for  their  ransom,  and 
are  taxed  to  your  quota,  hovr  will  you  put  these  colonies  on 
a  par  ?     Will  you  tax  the  tobacco  of  Virginia  ?     If  you  do, 

^  oompositioii.  Our  word  compounding  is  more  familiar. 
It  is  an  allusion  to  the  practice  of  agreeing  upon  a  sum  to  be 
paid  by  an  insolvent  debtor  to  8  creditor. 


HIM 


72 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


jrou  give  its  death-wound  to  your  English  revenue  at  home, 
and  to  one  of  the  very  greatest  articles  of  youi'  own  foreign 
trade.  If  you  tax  the  import  of  that  rebellious  colony, 
what  do  you  tax  but  your  own  manufactures,  or  the  goods 
of  some  other  obedient  and  already  well-taxed  colony  ? 
Who  has  said  one  word  on  this  labyrinth  of  detail,  which 
bewilders  you  more  and  more  as  you  enter  into  it  ?  Who 
has  presented,  who  can  present  you  with  a  clue  to  lead  you 
out  of  it  ?  I  think.  Sir,  it  is  impossible  that  you  should  not 
recollect  that  the  colony  bounds  are  so  implicated  in  one 
another,  —  you  know  it  by  your  other  experiments  in  the 
bill  for  prohibiting  the  New  England  fishery,  —  that  you 
can  lay  no  possible  restraints  on  almost  any  of  them  which 
may  not  be  presently  eluded,  if  you  do  not  confound  the 
innocent  with  the  guilty,  and  burthen  those  whom,  upon 
every  principle,  you  ought  to  exonerate.  He  must  be 
grossly  ignorant  of  America  who  thinks  that,  without  fall- 
ing into  this  confusion  of  all  rules  of  equity  and  policy, 
you  can  restrain  any  single  colony,  especially  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  the  central  and  most  important  of  them  all. 

134.  Let  it  also  be  considered  that,  either  in  the  present 
confusion  you  settle  a  permanent  contingent,  which  will 
and  must  be  trifling,  and  then  you  have  no  effectual  reve- 
nue ;  or  you  change  the  quota  at  every  exigency,  and  then 
on  every  new  repartition  you  will  have  a  new  quarrel. 

136.  Reflect,  besides,  that  when  you  have  fixed  a  quota 
for  every  colony,  you  have  not  provided  for  prompt  and 
punctual  payment.  Suppose  one,  two,  five,  ten  years' 
arrears.  Yoxjl  cannot  issue  a  Treasury  Extent  *  against  the 
failing  colony.  You  must  make  new  Boston  Port  Bills, 
new  restraining  laws,  new  acts  for  dragging  men  to  Eng- 
land for  trial.  You  must  send  out  new  fleets,  new  armies. 
All  is  to  begin  again>     From  this  day  forward  the  empire 

^  Treasury  Extent ;  a  severe  kind  of  execution  for  debts 
due  the  crown,  by  which  the  body,  land,  and  goods  of  the  debtoi 
might  be  taken. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       73 


is  never  to  know  an  hour's  tranquillity.  An  intestine  fire 
will  be  kept  alive  in  the  bowels  of  the  colonies,  which  one 
time  or  other  must  consume  this  whole  empire.  I  allow 
indeed  that  the  empire  of  Germany  raises  her  revenue  and 
her  troops  by  quotas  and  contingents ;  but  the  revenue  of 
bhe  empire,  and  the  army  of  the  empire,  is  the  worst 
revenue  and  the  worst  army  in  the  world. 

136.  Instead  of  a  standing  revenue,  you  will  therefore 
have  a  perpetual  quarrel.  Indeed,  the  noble  lord  who  pro- 
posed this  project  of  a  ransom  by  auction  seems  himself  to 
be  of  that  opinion.  His  project  was  rather  designed  for 
breaking  the  union  of  the  colonies  than  for  establishing  a 
revenue.  He  confessed  he  apprehended  that  his  proposal 
would  not  be  to  their  taste.  I  say  this  scheme  of  disunion 
seems  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  project ;  for  I  will  not 
suspect  that  the  noble  lord  meant  nothing  but  merely  to 
delude  the  nation  by  an  airy  phantom  which  he  never 
intended  to  rerlize.  But  whatever  his  views  may  be,  as  1 
propose  the  peace  and  union  of  the  colonies  as  the  very 
foundation  of  my  plan,  it  cannot  accord  with  one  whose 
foundation  is  perpetual  discord. 

,  137.  Compare  the  two.  This  I  offer  to  give  you  is  plain 
and  simple.  The  other  full  of  perplexed  and  intricate 
mazes.  This  is  mild  ;  that  ha?sh.  This  is  found  by  expe- 
rience effectual  for  its  purposes  ;  the  other  is  a  new  project. 
This  is  univei'sal ;  the  other  calculated  for  certain  colonies 
only.  This  is  immediate  in  its  conciliatory  operation ;  the 
other  remote,  contingent,  full  of  hazard.  Mine  is  what 
becomes  the  dignity  of  a  ruling  people  —  gratuitous,  uncon- 
ditional, and  not  held  out  as  a  matter  of  bargain  and  sale. 
I  have  done  my  duty  in  proposing  it  to  you.  I  have  indeed 
tired  you  by  a  long  discourse ;  but  this  is  the  misfortune  of 
those  to  whose  influence  nothing  will  be  conceded,  and  who 
must  win  every  inch  of  their  ground  by  argument.  You 
have  heard  me  with  goodness.  May  you  decide  with  wis- 
dom !     For  my  part,  I  feel  my  mind  greatly  disburthened 


¥ 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


by  what  I  have  done  to-day.  I  have  been  the  less  fearful 
of  trying  your  patience,  because  on  this  subject  I  mean  to 
spare  it  altogether  in  future.  I  have  this  comfort,  that  in 
every  stage  of  the  American  affairs  I  have  steadily  opposed 
the  measures  that  have  produced  the  confusion,  and  may 
bring  on  the  destruction,  of  this  empire.  I  now  go  so  far 
as  to  risk  a  proposal  of  my  own.  If  I  cannot  give  peace  to 
my  country,  I  give  it  to  my  conscience. 

138.  But  what,  says  the  financier,  is  peace  to  us  without 
money  ?  Your  plan  gives  us  no  revenue.  No !  Bat  it 
does  ;  for  it  secures  to  the  subject  the  power  of  Refusal, 
the  first  of  all  revenues.  Experience  is  a  cheat,  and  fact 
a  liar,  if  this  power  in  the  subject  of  proportioning  his 
grant,  or  of  not  granting  at  all,  has  not  been  found  the 
richest  mine  of  revenue  ever  discovered  by  the  skill  or  by 
the  fortune  of  man.  Tt  does  not  indeed  vote  you  152,750Z. 
lis.  2|c?.,  nor  any  other  paltry  limited  sum ;  but  it  gives 
the  strong  box  itself,  the  fund,  the  bank  —  from  whence 
only  revenues  can  arise  amongst  a  people  sensible  of  free- 
dom. Posita  luditur  area.  *  Cannot  you,  in  England  — 
cannot  you,  at  this  time  of  day  —  cannot  you,  a  House  of 
Commons,  trust  to  the  principle  which  has  raised  so  mighty 
a  revenue,  and  accumulated  a  debt  of  near  140,000,000  in 
this  country  ?  Is  this  principle  to  be  true  in  England,  and 
false  everywhere  else  ?  Is  it  not  true  in  Ireland  ?  Has  it 
not  hitherto  been  true  in  the  colonies  ?  Why  should  you 
presume  that,  in  any  country,  a  body  duly  constituted  for 
any  function  will  neglect  to  perform  its  duty  and  abdicate 
its  trust  ?  Such  a  presumption  would  go  against  all  gov- 
ernments in  all  modes.  But,  in  truth,  this  dread  of  penury 
of  supply  from  a  free  assembly  has  no  foundation  in  nature ; 
for  first,  observe  that,  besides  the  desire  which  all  men  have 
naturally  of  supporting  the  honor  of  their  own  government, 
that  sense  of  dignity  and  that  security  to  property  which 

'^  Posita  luditur  area  ;  a  quotation  from  Juvenal  (Satire  I. 
89-90)  :  "  The  chest  itself  is  staked." 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       75 


ever  attends  freedom  has  a  tendency  to  increase  the  stock 
of  the  free  community.  Most  may  be  taken  where  most  is 
accumulated.  And  what  is  the  soil  or  climate  where  expe- 
rience has  not  uniformly  proved  that  the  voluntary  flow  of 
heaped-up  pie  \ty,  bursting  trom  the  weight  of  its  own  rich 
luxuriance,  has  ever  run  with  a  more  copious  stream  of 
revenue  than  could  be  squeezed  from  the  dry  husks  of 
oppressed  indigence  by  the  straining  of  all  the  politic 
machinery  in  the  world  ? 

139.  Next,  we  know  that  parties  must  ever  exist  in  a  free 
country.  We  know,  too,  that  the  emulations  of  such  par- 
ties —  their  contradictions,  their  reciprocal  necessities,  their 
hopes,  and  their  fears  —  must  send  them  all  in  their  turns 
to  him  that  holds  the  balance  of  the  State.  The  parties 
are  the  gamesters ;  but  Government  keeps  the  table,  and 
is  sure  to  be  the  winner  in  the  end.  When  this  game 
is  played,  I  really  think  it  is  more  to  be  feared  that  the 
people  will  be  exhausted,  than  that  government  will  not  be 
supplied ;  whereas,  whatever  is  got  by  acts  of  absolute 
power  ill  obeyed,  because  odious,  or  by  contracts  ill  kept, 
because  constrained,  will  be  narrow,  feeble,  uncertain,  and 

precarious. 

"  Ease  would  retract  1 
Vows  made  in  pain,  as  violent  and  void." 

.  140.  I,  for  one,  protest  against  compounding  our  de- 
mands. I  declare  against  compounding,  for  a  poor  limited 
sum,  the  immense,  ever-growing,  eternal  debt  which  is  due 
to  generous  government  from  protected  freedom.  And  so 
may  I  speed  in  the  great  object  I  propose  to  you,  as  1 
think  it  would  not  only  be  an  act  of  injustice,  but  would  be 
the  worst  economy  in  the  world,  to  compel  the  colonies  to  a 
sum  certain,  either  in  the  way  of  ransom  or  in  the  way  of 
compulsory  compact. 

141.  But  to  clear  up  my  ideas  on  this  subject :  a  revenue 

*  ease  ■would  retract.     Paradise  Lost,  IV.  96,  97. 

"  ease  would  recant 
Vows  made  in  pain,  as  violent  and  void." 


76 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


from  America  transmitted  hither  —  do  not  delude  your- 
selves—  you  never  can  receive  it;  no,  not  a  shilling.  We 
have  experience  that  from  remote  countries  it  is  not  to  be 
expected.  If,  when  you  attempted  to  extract  revenue  from 
Bengal,  you  were  obliged  to  return  in  loan  what  you  had 
taken  in  imposition,  what  can  you  expect  from  North 
America  ?  For  certainly,  if  ever  there  was  a  country 
qualified  to  produce  wealth,  it  is  India;  or  an  institution  fit 
for  the  transmission,  it  is  the  East  India  Company.  Amer- 
ica has  none  of  these  aptitudes.  If  America  gives  you 
taxable  objects  on  which  you  lay  your  duties  here,  and 
gives  you,  at  the  same  time,  a  surplus  by  a  foreign  sale  of 
her  commodities  to  pay  the  duties  on  these  objects  which 
you  tax  at  home,  she  has  performed  her  part  to  the  British 
revenue.  But  with  regard  to  her  own  internal  establish- 
ments, she  may,  I  doubt  not  she  will,  contribute  in  mod- 
eration. I  say  in  moderation,  for  she  ought  not  to  be 
permitted  to  exhaust  herself.  She  ought  to  be  reserved  to 
a  war,  the  weight  of  which,  with  the  enemies  that  we  are 
most  likely  to  have,  must  be  considerable  in  her  quarter  of 
the  globe.  There  she  may  serve  you,  and  serve  you  essen 
tially. 

142.  For  that  service  —  for  all  service,  whether  of  reve- 
nue, trade,  or  empire  —  my  trust  is  in  her  interest 
in  the  British  Constitution.  My  hold  of  the  col- 
onies is  in  the  close  affection  which  grows  from  common 
names,  from  kindred  blood,  from  similar  privileges,  and 
equal  protection.  These  are  ties  which,  though  light  as  air, 
are  as  strong  as  links  of  iron.  Let  the  colonists  always 
keep  the  idea  of  their  civil  rights  associated  with  youi 
government,  —  they  will  cling  and  grapple  to  you,  and  no 
force  under  heaven  will  be  of  power  to  tear  them  from 
their  allegiance.  But  let  it  be  once  understood  that  your 
government  may  be  one  thing,  and  their  privileges  another, 
that  these  two  things  may  exist  without  any  mutual  rela- 
tion, the  cement  is  gone  —  the  cohesion  is  loosened  —  and 


IV.  The 
Pororation. 


/^^^ 


CONCILIATION  WITH  THE  COLONIES.       77 

iverything  hastens  to  decay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as 
you  have  the  wisdom  to  keep  the  sovereign  authority  of  this 
country  as  the  sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  con- 
secrated to  our  common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen  race 
and  sons  of  England  worship  freedom,  they  will  turn  their 
faces  towards  you.  The  more  they  multiply,  the  more 
friends  you  will  have  ;  the  more  ardently  they  love  liberty, 
the  more  perfect  will  be  their  obedience.  Slavery  they  can 
have  anywhere  —  it  is  a*  weed  that  grows  in  every  soil. 
They  may  have  it  from  Spain ;  they  may  have  it  from 
Prussia.  But,  until  you  become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  your 
true  interest  and  your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can 
have  from  none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of  price 
of  which  you  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the  true  Act  of 
Navigation  which  binds  to  you  the  commerce  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  through  them  secures  to  you  the  wealth  of  the 
world.  Deny  them  this  participation  of  freedom,  and  you 
break  that  sole  bond  which  originally  made,  and  must  still 
preserve,  the  unity  of  the  empire.  Do  not  entertain  so 
«veak  an  imagination  as  that  your  registers  and  your  bonds, 
your  affidavits  and  your  sufferances,  your  cockets*  and 
your  clearances,  are  what  form  the  great  securities  of  your 
commerce.  Do  not  dream  that  your  letters  of  office,  and 
your  instructions,  and  your  suspending  clauses,  are  the 
things  that  hold  together  the  great  contexture  of  the  myste^ 
rious  whole.  These  things  do  not  make  your  government. 
Dead  instruments,  passive  tools  a?  they  are,  it  is  the  spirit 
of  the  English  communion  that  gives  all  their  life  and 
efficacy  to  them.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion which,  infused  through  the  mighty  mass,  pervades, 
feeds,  unites,  invigorates,  vivifies  every  part  of  the  empire, 
even  down  to  the  minut*      member. 


1  Cockets  ,  .  .  clearances.  These  are  terms  relating  to 
the  routine  business  of  the  Custom  House.  A  cocket  is  a  docu- 
ment certifying  that  merchandise  has  been  duly  entered  ;  a 
clearance  is  a  permit  for  a  vessel  to  ^eave  port. 


78 


EDMUND  BURKE. 


143.  Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which  does  everything  foi 
us  here  in  England  ?  Do  you  imagine,  then,  that  it  is  the 
Land  Tax  Act  which  raises  your  revenue  ?  that  it  is  the 
annual  vote  in  the  Committee  of  Supply  which  gives  you 
your  army  ?  or  that  it  is  the  Mutiny  Bill  which  inspires  it 
with  bravery  and  discipline  ?  No !  surely  no !  It  is  the 
love  of  the  people ;  it  is  their  attachment  to  their  govern- 
ment, from  the  sense  of  the  deep  stake  they  have  in  such  a 
glorious  institution,  which  gives  «you  your  army  and  your 
navy,  and  infuses  into  both  that  liberal  ^  obedience  without 
which  your  army  would  be  a  base  rabble,  and  your  navy 
nothing  but  rotten  timber. 

144.  All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild  and 
chimerical  to  the  profane  herd  of  those  vulgar  and  mechan- 
ical politicians  who  have  no  place  among  us ;  a  sort  of 
people  who  think  that  nothing  exists  but  what  is  gross  and 
material,  and  who,  therefore,  far  from  being  qualified  to  be 
directors  of  the  great  movement  of  empire,  are  not  fit  to 
turn  a  wheel  in  the  machine.  But  to  men  truly  initiated 
and  rightly  taught,  these  ruling  and  master  principles 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  such  men  as  I  have  mentioned, 
have  no  substantial  existence,  are  in  truth  everything,  and 
all  in  all.  Magnanimity  in  politics  is  not  seldom  the  truest 
wisdom ;  and  a  great  empire  and  little  minds  go  ill  to- 
gether. If  we  are  conscious  of  our  station,  and  glow  with 
iceal  to  fill  our  places  as  becomes  our  station  and  ourselves, 
we  ought  to  auspicate  all  our  public  proceedings  on  Amer- 
ica with  the  old  warning  of  the  church,  Sursum  corda  !  ^ 
We  ought  to  elevate  our  minds  to  the  greatness  of  that 
trust  to  which  the  order  of  providence  has  called  us.  By 
adverting  to  the  dignity  of  this  high  calling  our  ancestors 
have  turned  a  savage  wilderness  into  a  glorious  empire,  and 
have  made  the  most  extensive  and  the  only  honorable  con- 

^  liberal ;  this  word  is  used  in  its  strict  etymological  sense  of 
frfe,  not  grudgingly  or  of  compulsion. 
'  Sursum  corda  =  Lift  up  your  hearts. 


CONCILIATION   WITH  THE  COLONIES.       79 

quests  —  not  by  destroying,  but  by  promoting  tlie  wealth, 
the  number,  the  happiness,  of  the  human  race.  Let  us  get 
an  American  revenue  as  we  have  got  an  American  empire. 
English  privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it  is  ;  English  priv 
ileges  alone  will  make  it  all  it  can  be. 

145.  In  full  confidence  of  this  unalterable  truth,  I  now, 
luod  felix  faustumque  s'lt,^  lay  the  first  stone  of  the  Tempk 
)f  Peace  ;  and  I  move  you  — 

146.  "  That  the  Colonies  and  Plantations  of  Great  Britain  ir. 

North  America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  gov- 
ernments, and  containing  two  millions  and  upwards 
of  free  inhabitants,  have  not  had  the  liberty  and 
privilege  of  electing  and  sendir^  any  Knights  and 
Burgesses,  or  others,  to  represent  tuem  in  the  High 
Court  of  Parliament."  >      ,  ^ 

*  auod  f eiis^  faustumque  ait  — -  and  may  it  be  ha-ppy  and 
(vrtuoate. 


.      • 


V--".; 


COLLEGE   ENTRANCE   REQUIREMENTS 

IN  ENGLISH 

Tht  numbers  in  parinthtsis  refer  to 

THE  RIVERSIDE   LITERATURE   SERIES 
FOR   STUDY,    1915-1919 

One  book  is  to  be  selected  from  each  of  the  four  groups. 

I  Shakespeare :  Julius  Czsar  (67),  Macbeth  (106),  Hamlet  (116). 

II  Milton:  L'Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  and  either  Comus  or  Lycidas(72);  Tennyson: 
The  Coming  of  Arthur,  The  Holy  Grail,  and  The  Passing  of  Arthur  (99);  Selec- 
tions from  Wordsworth,  Keats,  and  Shelley  (in  preparation). 

III  Burke  :  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America  (100) ;  Macaulay  :  Speeches  on  Copy< 
right,  and  Lincoln's  Cooper- Union  Speech  (in  preparation);  Washington:  Fare- 
well Address;  Webster:  Bunker  Hill  Oration  (190). 

IV  Carlyle:  Essay  on  Burns  (105);  Selection  of  Burns's  Poems  (77);  Macaulay:  Life 
of  Johnson  (102) ;  Emerson  :  Essay  on  Manners  (172). 


FOR   READING,    1915-1919 

At  least  two  books  are  to  be  selected  from  each  of  the  five  groups^ 
except  as  otherwise  provided  under  Group  I. 

I  The  Old  Testament,  comprising  at  least  the  chief  narrative  episodes  in  Genetia, 
Exodus,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings,  and  Daniel,  together  with  the  books  of 
Ruth  and  Esther  (204);  The  Odyssey,  with  the  omission,  if  desired,  of  Books  I, 
II,  III,  IV,  V,  XV,  XVI,  XVII  (180,  Palmer's  Translation  complete);  tBryant's 
Translation,  complete,  Student's  Edition,  ji.oo  net,  postpaid;  The  Iliad,  with  the 
omis«ion,if  desired,  of  Books  XI,  XIII,  XIV,  XV,  XVII,  XXI,  tBryant's  Transla- 
tion, I  omplete.  Student's  Edition,  $1.00  net,  postpaid  ;  The  Aneid  (193).  For  any 
selection  from  this  group  a  selection  from  any  other  group  may  be  substituted. 
II  Shakespeare's  Midsummer-Night's  Dream  (153),  Merchant  of  Venice  ($5),  As  You 
Like  It  (93),  Twelfth  Night  (149),  The  Tempest  (154),  Romeo  and  Juliet  (212),  tKing 
John,  tRichard  II,  tRichard  III,  Henry  V  (163),  tCoriolanus,  Julius  Csesar  (67), 
Macbeth  (106),  Hamlet  (116),  if  not  chosen  for  study.  fShakeapeare's  Complete 
Works,  Carhbridge  Edition,  $3.00. 

Ill  Malory:  Morte  d' Arthur  (158);  Bunyan  :  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Part  1(109);  Swift- 
Gulliver's  Travels  (voyages  to  Lilliput  and  to  Brobdingnag)  (89-90) ;  Defoe :  Rob- 
inson Crusoe,  Part  I  (87) ;  Goldsmith  :  Vicar  of  Wakefield  (78) ;  Scott :  any  one 
novel  [e.g.,  Ivanhoe  (86) ;  Quentin  Durward  (165) ;  (tScott's  Waverley  Novels,  |i.oo 
per  volume)] ;  tjane  Austen :  any  one  novel ;  fMaria  Bdgeworth  :  Castle  Rack- 
rent,  The  Absentee ;  tFrances  Burney  (Madame  d'Arblay):  Evelina;  Dickens; 
any  one  novel  [e.g.,  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  (161)  (tDickens's  Complete  Works,  I1.50 
per  volume)];  Thackeray  :  anyone  novel  [e.g.,  Henry  Esmond  (140)  (tThackeray's 
.   Works,  I1.50  per  volume)] ;  George  Eliot :  any  one  novel  [e.g.,  Silas  Maraer  (83U  | 

1214  A 


Mrs.  Oaakell :  Cranford  (193) ;  fKingsley :  Westward  Hof  »r  Hereward  the  Wbkv  i 
tReade  :  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth;  tBIackmore:  Loriia  Doone  ;  Hughes: 
Tom  Brown's  School  Days  (85);  fStevenaon :  Any  of  the  novels  which  are  out  of 
copyright;  tCooper  :  Anyone  novel  [e.g.,  The  Spy  (207) ;  The  Last  of  the  Mohi- 
cans (95-98)  (tCooper's  Works,  |i. 00  per  volume)]  ;  Poe:  Selected  Tales  (119- 120); 
Hawthorne :  Any  of  the  novels  which  are  out  of  copyright  [e.g.,  The  House  of  the 
Seven  Gables  (91);  The  Marble  Faun  (148)  (t  Hawthorne's  Complete  Works,  |i.oo 
per  volume)]  ;  f  A  collection  of  Short  Stories  by  various  standard  writers. 

IV  Addison  and  Steele:  The  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers  (60-61),  or tSelections 
from  Tatler  and  Spectator ;  fBoswell :  Selections  from  the  Life  of  Jolinson ;  Frank- 
lin :  Autobiography  (19-20) ;  Irving:  Selections  from  the  Sketch  Book  (51-52),  or 
the  Life  of  Goldsmith  (155);  tSouthey  :  ,.  f  Nelson;  Lamb:  Selections  from 
the  Essays  of  Elia  (170) ;  Lockhart :  Sel  oni  the  Life  of  Scott,  tCambridge 

Edition,  5  vols.,  f  10.00;  tThackeray  ;  L  jn  Swift,  Addison,  and  Steele  in 

tEnglish  Humorists, /i. so;  Macaulay  :  0:iv  of  the  following  essays:  Lord  Clive 
(198),  Warren  Hastings  (iqg),  Milton  (103),  Addison  (104),  Goldsmith  (102),  tFred- 
eric  the  Great,  tMadamed'Arblay;  tTrevelyan :  Selections  from  Life  of  Macaulay; 
Ruskin:  Sesame  and  Lilies  (142),  <>r  Selections  (178);  Dana:  Two  Years  Before 
the  Mast  (84);  Lincoln:  Selections,  including  at  least  the  two  Inaugurals,  thp 
Speeches  in  Independence  Hall  and  at  Gettysburg,  the  Last  Public  Address,  and 
Letter  to  Horace  Greeley,  together  with  a  brief  memoir  or  estimate  of  Lincoln  (132- 
33);  tParkman  :  The  Oregon  Trail ;  Thoreau  :  Walden  (195) ;  Lowell :  Selected 
Essays  (123,  169);  Holmes:  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table  (81);  fSteven- 
son  :  Inland  Voyage  and  Travels  with  a  Donkey;  Huxley:  Autobiography  and 
Selections  from  Lay  Sermons,  including  the  addresses  on  Improving  Natural  Know- 
ledge, A  Liberal  Education,  and  A  Piece  of  Chalk  (187);  Essays  by  Bacon  (177), 
Lamb  (170),  De  Quiricey  (164),  Emerson  (171-172),  fHazlitt;  fA  collection  of 
Letters  by  various  standard  writers. 

V  Selected  Poems  by  Dryden,  Gray,  Cowper,  Burns,  Collins  (In  preparation] 
Selected  Poems  by  Wordsworth,  Keats,  Shelley  (if  not  chosen  for  study)  (In  pre- 
paration) ;  Goldsmith :  The  Traveller,  and  the  Deserted  Village  (68) ;  Pope :  The 
Rape  of  the  Lock  (147) ;  A  Collection  of  English  and  Scottish  Ballads,  as,  for 
example,  Robin  Hood  ballads,  The  Battle  of  Otterburne,  King  Estmere,  Young 
Beichan,  Bewick  and  Grahame,  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  and  a  selection  from  later  bal- 
lads (183);  Coleridge:  The  Ancient  Mariner,  Christabel,  and  Kubla  Khan  (80); 
Byron:  tChilde  Harold,  Cai-to  III,  or  Childe  Harold,  Canto  IV,  and  the  Prisoner 
of  Chillon  (189).  tChilde  Harold,  complete,  edited  by  W.  J.  Rolfe,  53  cents  net, 
postpaid ;  Scott :  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  (53),  or  fMarmion.  Edited  by  W.  J.  Rolfe, 
53  cents  net,  postpaid ;  Macaulay :  The  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  (45),  tThe  Fattle 
of  Naseby,  tThe  Armada,  Ivry  (115);  Tennyson:  The  Princess  {\i\),or  G.ireth 
and  Lynette,  Lancelot  and  Elaine,  The  Passing  of  Arthur  (156);  Browning: 
Cavalier  Tunes,  The  Lost  Leader,  How  They  Brought  the  Good  News  from  Ghent 
to  Aix,  Home  Thoughts  from  Abroad,  Home  Thoughts  from  the  Sea,  Incident  of 
the  French  Camp,  Hervd  Riel,  Pheidippides,  My  Last  Duchess,  Up  at  a  Villa  — 
Down  in  the  City,  tThe  Italian  in  England,  tThe  Patriot,  "  De  Gustibus,"  The  Pied 
Piper,  tlnstans  Tyrannus  (115).  The  present  edition  contains  all  but  three  of  these 
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(119-120),  Lowell  (30,  15),  Longfellow  (i,  2,  11,  i3-i4»  aS.  26,  33-35,  i^i  63,  167), 
Whittier  (4,  5,41,  175);  tPage's  Chief  American  poets(f  1.75  net,  postpaid)  con- 
tains the  most  complete  selection  from  these  poets  (also  Bryant,  Emerson,  Holmes, 
Whitman,  and  Lanier)  yet  collected  in  one  volume. 

t  Not  published  in  the  Riverside  Literature  Series.  • 

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Shakespeare's  Macbeth.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 
108.  Grimms' Tales.    In  two  parts,  each,  jdt/**')-,  .1,5.    Nos.  10" 
Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.     Paper,  .,'50  ;  Imen-  .40. 
De  Quincey's  Flight  of  a  Tartar  Tribe.    Paper,  .15. 

Tennyson's  Princess.    Paper,  .,'iO.  Aho.  in  Itolfe'K  Sluilentf'  Serie!>,tu  Teachers,  .■5,t 
Virgil's  .Sineid.    Books  I-lll.    Transluted  by  Ckancii.     Paper,  .V'i. 
Poems  fi-om  i^merson.     Paper,  .15.    Nos.  113,  42,  one  vol.,  /iji«/i,  .40 
Peabody's  Old  Greek  Folk  Stories.     Pa/ier,  .15:  Imen,  .25. 
Browning's  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  etc.    paper,  15  -.  Imen,  .2.5. 
Shakespeare's  Hamlet.     Paper,  .V>;  linen,  .'25. 
118.  Stories  from  the  Arabian  Nights.    In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.    \o«.  ur, 

118,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 
Poe's  'The  Raven,  The  Pall  of  the  House  of  TJsher,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  Imen,  .'la. 
Poe's  The  Gold-Buar,  etc.    Paper,  .1.5.    Nos.  119,  I'JO,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 
Speech  by  Robert  Young  Hayne  on  Foote's  Resolution.    Paper,  .15. 
Speech  by  Daniel  V57ebster  xn  Reply  to  Hayne.    Paper,  .15.    Nos  121, 122,  one 

vol.,  linen,  .40. 
Lowell's  Democracy,  etc.    Paper,  .1,5. 
Aldrloh's  The  Cruise  of  the  Dolphin,  etc.    Paper,  .\S. 
Dryden's  Palamon  and  Arcite.     Paper,  .15  :  lini-n.  .'li. 
Ruskin's  King  of  the  Golden  River,  etc.    Paper,  . in-,  linen,  .i,^ 
Keats's  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn.  etc.     Pai>er.  .15. 
Byron's  Prisoner  of  Chillon,  etc.     Paver,  .15  ;  Imen,  .2.5. 
Plato's  Judgment  of  Socrates.    Trnnstated  l>y  P.  E.  MoiiK.     Paper,  15. 
Emerson's  "The  Superlative,  and  Other  Bss'ays.  etc.    J'ajier,  15. 
Emerson's  Nature,  and  Compensation.    Paper,  .15. 
Arnold's  Sohrab  and  Rustum,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  linen.  .25. 
Schurz's  Abraham  Lincoln.     Paper,  .15.    Nos.  l,'i.'t.  :V2,  one  vol..  linen,  .40. 
Scott's  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.     Paper,  .ai.    Aho,  in  Rolj'c's  Simlents'  .Series,  to 

Tencliern,  net,  .53. 
Chaucer's  Prologue.     Paper.  .15  ;  linen,  .2,5. 
Chaucer's  Thf    Knight's  Tale,  and  The  Nun's  Priest's  Tale.     Paper,    15. 

Nos.  l.'io.  1,'iO,  one  vol..  linen,  .40.     New  Library  Bmiliwi,  ..50. 
Bryant's  Iliad.     Books  I,  VI,  XXII.  and  XXI V!    Paper,  .15 ;  Imen.  .25. 
Hawthorne's  The  Custom  House,  and  Main  Street.    Paper,  .15. 
Howells's  Doorstep  Acquaintance,  and  Other  Sketches.    Paper,  .1,5. 
Thackeray's  Henry  Esmond.    Linen,  .75. 
Higeincon's  Three  Outdoor  Papers.    Paper,  .15. 
Rusklii's  Sesame  and  Lilies.    Paper.  .15  ;  linen.  .'25. 

Plutarch's  Life  of  Alexander  the  Great.    North's  Translation.    Paper,  16. 
Scudder's  The  Book  of  Letrends.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  2.5. 
Hawthorne's  The  Gentle  Boy,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  Imen,  .'2.5. 
Longfellow's  Giles  Corey.    Paver,  .15. 
Pope's  Rape  of  the  Lock,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  limn,  .'25 
Hawthorne's  Marble  Faun.    Linen,  .<»). 
Shakespeare's  Twelfth  Night.     Paper.  .15  :  linen.  .2.5. 
Ouida's  Dog  of  Flanders,  and  The  Niirnberg  Stove.    Paper.  J5  ; 
Swing's  Jackanapes,  and  The  Brownies.    I'aper,  .15  :  linen,  .2* 
Martineau's  The  Peasant  and  the  Prince.    I'aper,  :,W  -.  linen,  .40 
Shakespeare's  Midsummer  Night's  Dream.     I'ape,-,  15;  linen,  .25. 
Shakespeare's  Tempest.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .'25. 
Irving's  Life  of  Goldsmith.    Paper,  .45  ;  linen,  .50 
Tennyson's  Gareth  and  Lynette.  etc.    Paper.  .15  ;  linen,  .25 
"The  Song  of  Roland.    Translated  by  IsAnei.  Buti.kr.     Paper.  ..Ifl  :  linen.  .40. 
Malory's  Book  of  Merlin  and  Book  of  Sir  Balin.    Paper.  .15  :  linen,  25 
Beowulf.    Translated  by  C.  O.  Child.     Paper,  .15  :  linen,  .25 

Spenser's  Faerie  Queene.  >Book  I.  Paper,  ..30  :  linen,  .40.  \ew  Library  Rimling,  .SO. 
Dickens's  Tale  of  Two  Cities.     Paper.  ,45  ;  linen,  ..50. 

Prose  and  Poetry  of  Cardinal  Newman.    Selections.    Paper,  .30  ;  linen,  40 
Shakespeare's  Henry  V.    Paper.  .15  ;  linen.  .'25. 

-De  Quincey's  Joan  of  Arc,  and  The  English  Mail-Coach.   Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25, 
Scott'p  Quentin  Durwnrd.    Paper,  ..50  tlinen,  .00. 
Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero-'Worship.   Paper,  .43i  linen,  .50.    .\ew  Library  Bind- 

ma,  .60. 
ZionKiellow'a  Autobiographioal  Poems.    Paper,  .IS  i  linen,  .'25. 
Shelley's  Poems.    Selected.    Paper,  .45 1  linen,  .50. 


linen,  .2.1. 


4 


tii\}tt^iht  literature  M>tm^  —  continued 

1B9.  Lowell's  My  Garden  Acquaintance,  etc    Pufi'-r.  Art. 

170.  Lambs  JtHsu.VH  of  Elia.     Seltcled.     t'liiifi:  M  ;  hifii,  AO 

171.  ira.   ISviiei'aoii's   Kpsays.     .^electL•(i.      In  two  part.-^,  eucli,  /  if/'f/ ,  .l.<.      No8.  171,  1."'.', 

one  vol..  Inn  II,  .Ml. 

173.  Kate  Dougl.'vH  Wii-'ein's  Plae-Raislng.    fn/.c;.  .I.".  ;  limn,  .'i:, 

174.  Kate  Doiii^las  Wi^'ein's  Pinding  a  Home.     I'ni  fi:  .1  •  ;  huni,  .'<!.'>. 
17.1.  Wliittiei''8  Au'obiotiraphieal  Poems.     /'«/"-;.  .1,") ;  ltiiii,,.M. 
li''i.   BurrougtiBH  Aloot  aud  Atlout.     J'n/t  r,  .1.".:  Inn  n.  .V.'i 

177.  Bacon's  Es^ayH.     I'lipi  i\  :.'m  :  luini,  ,h().     .\iir  Lihimii  /liinliiin.  .W. 

178.  Selection^    i-oiu  the  VVotkb  o<  Jolin  Hus<tin.    /'a/jfi .  .i:i;liiitii,.M.    Sew  Lihn-iij 

liiinhnij.  .DIP. 
17!t.  King  Arthur  Stoi'ies  tVom  Malory.     I'ni'ir,  .'iU:  Uhku,  .H).         •        ' 
IM).  Palmer's  Odys.se.v      Ai'iniaul  l-Jihiiiin.    i.iin  n 


1«1,  iv.'. 


Goldsmith  s  Thp  Good-Natured  Miin,  and  Slie  StoopB  to  Conquer. 

fiil/ifi-,  .1.'.  ;    111  ollf  vol..  Inn, I,  .111.      .\ii;-  l.iljKi'i/  lii :,:i iini.  .Mi 


Eacli, 


■.h 


,  .^||.  .\f 


l.iliiunj  /^iiidiinj,  .Vi 


.  .l.'i  ;  Ititfii.  .2.'i. 
l^"^,  one  vol.,  Iiiifii, 
I  nil' II,  .'-' 


.\<»' 


/•«- 


AfU'  Librai'j 


In  two  [larts, 


l"".  Old  finelisli  and  Seottish  Ba, lads.  y'li/..  r.  ..'ji : 

l^4.  Sliakespeare's  Kintr  Lear      I'li/:  i .  .l."i :  ///k  k,  .a.'). 

\H.'i.  iVloorPs'H  Abraham  Lineoli'.     /'n/n  r.  .\.'i  -.  Inn  n,  .■2: 

isti.  1'horec.u's  Camping  111  the  Maine  Woods,     /'ii//*-; 

1.S7  l-iu-Kley's  Autobiotiraphy.  fti',     /'iiii'i,.\.',. 

ItJH.  Hu.'iley's  Essays,    .selcctfd.    I'lii  er,  .l.'i.     Nos    l>-7 

l.ihiuiil  Hiiulhni,  ..'id. 

1«9.  Byron's  Chi Ide  Harold,  Canto  I'V,  etc.    /'nn»'/-,  .l." 

1;h».  WashinKton'ri  Farewell  Address,  and 'Webster's  Bunker  Hill  Oration. 

//<■;•,  .1.")  !  illt'll,  .'2'i. 

r.il.  Second  ShepJiord's  Flay,  Everyman,  etc.     /'uj>er,  .M  ;  liiun,  AO. 

/liiiiliiit;,  .60. 
iy2.  Mrs.  Gaskell's  Cranford     Pii/ier,  MO;  linen.  .Hi. 
I'.i.'!.  Williams's  .iEneid      /.nmi,  .7:,. 

1!M.  Irving's  Braeebridge  Hall.     J'iii>er.  .Vi  :  liinii.  .'-',■).        ,    .    ;  ' 

I'.ij.  Thoreau's  Walden.    J'n/iei;  .1;  -.  limn,  ..")<>. 
]!»;.  Shcridaix's  The  ."Rivalb.     I'ai"  r.  .1.". :  linen,  .'.'.i 
1117.   Parton'3  Captains  of  Industry.     I'liier,  .Vt ;  hneu,. 2't. 
Wm,  nil.  Maoauiay's  Essays  on  Lord  Clive  and  'Warren  Hastings. 

fucli,  /Ki/ier,  .l."i;   in  out'  vol..  linen.  .411. 
2iMt.  HowoUb's  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham.     /'.(;.(-/■... .11 -.  I  nun.  .01 
'Jill.  Harris's  Little  Mr.  Thimblertn^er  Stories,     /''i/-. , ,  .mi  ;  /kh-h.  .41.. 
lity.  Jewett's  The  JS!if;ht  Before  Thanksgiving,  A    White  Heron,  and  Selected 

Stories.      J'n/ier.  .1.)  ;  linen,  .'.'."i. 
'ilUi    TheJNibcluneenliod.     /,!//(■»,  .7.1.  ,."        '.<•;> 

2114.  Sheffield's  Old  Testament  Narrative,     rinili.  .:-,.  ■•    ^'^      -' 

20.5.   Powera'8  A  Dickens  Header.     I'lijn  r,  ."11  -,  Imen,  .W.  ''   ^."''.    .  ,*  ...  • 

2iH>.  Goethe's  PniiHt.  I'iirt  I.     /.men,  .T:>.  .i  .';'.     -  '    ■  >   /.'* 

207.  Cooper's  The  Spy.     I'lijier,  .Mi  \  linen.  .rM.  ''  ■    »    •        ■.. 

lios    Aldriehs  Slory  ol'a  Bad  Boy.    J.nnui.  .:*i.  .    ■        i  i  '-    ;   ,     '. 

'JOH.  'Warner's  Beinp  a  Boy.     l.in- n.  .w. 

2111.  Kate  Dou'ias  Wigr  in's  I'oilv  O.iver's  I'-.oblem.     t.inen.  .40. 
'.'11    Milton's  Of  Education,  etc.     I'nrir,  A.i  :  //«.;,,  .,"iii.     .\'e  r  l.ihmry  Jlinding,  .60. 
2I'J.  Shakespeare's  Romeo  an  J  Juliet.     I'liin  , .  .\.;;  liinn.:i.'i. 

\>y\.  Hemingway's  Lo  Morte  Arthur.     /'"/"'■,  .^io;  /"»'•//.  .40.  ","•,        ■       ■    ,,'   ■. 

L'l+    Moores'8  Life  of  Columbus.     I'niier.  .\:i;  Imen,  .2:1.  ■^'  .  ■  1    '•    ; 

21.'>.  Bret  Harte's  Tennessee's  Partner,  tto.     /'n/er,  .].'>:  linen,  .■>.'•.  . '■      ,' 

'JM.  Ralph  Roister  Doister.     J'iii>ei,  ,:i»).    Sen'  Lihniiii  iiimliini,  .:*i.  '"■:"• 

217.    Gorbodue.     < /n   /'leiiintitinli.) 

21^.  Selected  Lyries  from  Wordsworth,  Keats,  and  Shelley     I'lipei-,  .l.l;  linen,  .2."». 
'Jill.  Selected  Lyrics  from  Dryden,  Collins,  Gray,  Cowper  ai.d  Lun.s     J'ajjer, 

.1.1  i  linen,  .'2.'i. 
220.  Southern  Poon  s.     P't/ier,  .1,5  ;  linen,  .'J.'t 
'J2l    Macaulay's  Speeches  on  Copyright ;  Lincoln's  Cooper  Union  Address.    (In 

Piejiaifiliiiii.) 

KATRA    Xl/.r/BEKS  (.SELECTED    LIST) 

f   Warriner's  The  Teaching  of  English  Classics  m  the  Gra     s.    I'aijer,  .13. 

/    Thomas's  How  to  Teach  Fnplish  Classics.    I'n/jer,  .i.'i.  •' 

J    Hoibrook's  Northland  Heroes,    /.men.  .r/t.  -  /,    1 

L   The  Riverside  Sone  Book.     /'(i/>(=, ,  .■'in  ;  6of(*</.<,  .40. 

M  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics.     I'niier,  .\r,.  ''"'''•„'       :''■ 

P    Hoibrook's  Hiawritha  Primer,     /.men,  .i(\  '•     '- 

r   Hoibrook's  Boo 'c  of  Nature  Myths.     I.iuen,  .i'l. 

W  Brown's  In  the  D.iys  of  Giants     Linen.  ..Ml, 

.V    Poems  for  the  Study  of  Language.     /'(»/»/■,  .;i(i! //«<'«.  .40.    Aluo  in  three  parts,  each, 

/lO/ier,  .1."). 
CC  Selections  for  Stud,y  and  Memorizing.     For  Cradcs  I  III.    J'o/ier,  .1.) ;  Imen,  .25. 

jVEI^y  LIBRARY  HINDI NC 

lliS-l.'Ki.  Chaucer's  Prologue,  The  Knight's  Tale,  and  Tlie  Nun's  Priest's  Tale.   50 

ceiitB. 
I»i0.  Spenser's  Faerie  O.ueene.    Book  I.    .lOceiitB. 
imi,  Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero- Worship,    lio  cents. 
17".  Bacon's  Essa.ys.    ineentH. 

178.  Selections  fi'om  the  Works  of  John  Ruskin.    tJicpiifs. 

1H1-1.S2.  Goldsmith's  The  Good-Natured  Man,  and  She  Stoops  to  Conquer.  50  centg. 
l."*.'!.  Old  English  and  Scottish  Ballads.    M  centH. 
1K7-18S.  Huxley's  Autobiography  and  Selected  Essays.    50  cents. 
l!)l.  Second  Shepherd's  Play,  Everyman,  etc.    fOueuts, 
i211    Milton's  Areopagltica,  etc.    60  cents. 
Kltt.  Balph  aoister  Doiater.   WoanU. 


